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W. W. BHEESR, M. D. 



AUTHOR OF 



'Twelve Rules of Health and Glossary of Useful Knowledge," 
" Drifting; A Tale True to Life," etc. 



PUBLISHED BY 




NASHVILLE. 



** 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1883, 

By W. W. BREESE, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



DONOHUK & HENNEBERRY, PK1NTERS AND BINDERS, 
CHICAGO. 



6^" 



3^ 



WITH A GRATEFUL HEART AND EVER LINGERING, PLEASANT 
MEMORY, 

THIS VOLUME 

IS MOST AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED TO A 

SAINTED WIFE AND LOVING DAUGHTER, 

WITHOUT WHOSE HELP ITS PREPARATION MIGHT 
NEVER HAVE BEEN COMPLETED. 



Let not Mercy and Truth forsake thee: bind 
them about thy neck; write them upon the table 
of thine heart ; so shalt thou find favor and good 
understanding in the sight of God and man. 

Proverbs III: 3, 4. 



.pREReieE. 



The author has gathered material for this book 
during many years. In this time he has consulted 
thousands of volumes and authors innumerable. 
Great quantities of manuscript have been made, 
only to be cast aside as unavailable, while the real 
treasures have been retained and used. 

A well-known author has said : " Nothing is 
sillier than this charge of plagiarism. There is no 
sixth commandment in art. The poet dare help 
himself wherever he lists — wherever he finds ma- 
terial suited to his work. He may even appro- 
priate entire columns with their carved capitals, if 
the temple he thus supports be a beautiful one. 
Goethe understood this very well, and so did 
Shakespeare before him." 

In the language of another: "I have borrowed 
from everything and everywhere, to the best of my 
ability ; from life in its varied forms, and from the 
open reservoirs of stolen learning called books. 
He is richest in this world who borrows most." 



4 PREFACE. 

As the strippings are said to contain the cream, so 
the author's gleanings in the field of knowledge 
condense the wisdom of many minds and all ages. 
This book, in a word, is the result of years 
spent in unwearied study and research, and it is 
sincerely hoped that the reader may derive at least 
a portion of the pleasure in its perusal that the 
author has had in its composition. 

W. W. BREESE. 
Chicago, Feb. 22, 1883. 



COHiEHig 



The Cradle .... 
The Nursery . . . 
Early Impressions . 
Parent and Child . . 
Filial Love .... 
The Parent's Duty 
The True Home . . 
The Mother's Hand . 
Home and Health . . 
Young America . 
Choice of Occupation . 
Appearances .... 
Work or Play . . . 
Good Breeding . . . 
Think and Act . 
The Strong Man . 
Common Sense 
Self- Control . . . 
Wanted — A Man . 
Penny Wise, Pound Foolish 
The Farmer's Home . 
City People .... 
Friends in Need . . 
Discretion .... 
Painstaking .... 
From the Ranks . . 
Duty of Making Money 
Secrets of Success . . 
Squandering Energies . 
Strength of Character 
Strength of Influence 
Constancy .... 
Power of Habit . . 
Man and Circumstances 
An Ounce of Prevention 



7 
10 

15 
21 

29 
33 
39 
49 
57 
63 
70 

75 

79 

87 

93 

99 

105 

113 

118 

123 

129 

135 
141 

146 
150 
155 
162 
167 
179 
185 
192 
199 
203 
209 
215 



Persistency 220 

Decision 225 

Toleration 230 

Consistency 234 

Precision . 239 

Tact 243 

Debt and Destruction . . 246 
Honesty the Best Policy . .251 

Moral Courage 254 

Fidelity 261 

Heroes 269 

Keep Cool 275 

Turning Points 280 

Business Morality .... 286 
Social Morality . . . .291 

Self-Denial 295 

Patience and Forbearance . 300 

Duties of Life 306 

Sowing 310 

Reaping 315 

Self-Helps 321 

Self-Education 327 

The Best Books .... 333 
Wit, Wisdom and Humor . . 338 

Atoms 345 

Trifles 352- 

Glimpses . 359 

Driftwood ...... 366 

Shoddy 374 

Curiosity 380 

covetousness 383 

Selfishness 388 

Fanaticism 395 

Flattery 402 

Evil Criticism 405 



CONTENTS. 



Evil for Evil 
Blasphemy 
Falsehood 
Cruelty . 
Revenge . . 
The Social Tyrant 
Reckless or Fearless 
War . . 
Duelling . 
Growling . 
Degradation 
Secret Sins 
Vicious Amusements 
Dirt, Disease and Death 
• Tramps . . 
Cowards . 
Sponging . 
Shirking . 
Miseries of Sin 
Pleasures of Piety . 
Everyday Religion . 
The Power of Prayer 
True Repentance . 
Sunshine and Shadow 

Truth 

Providence 
Christian Charity . 
The World's Hope . 
Heart's-Ease 
Christian Graces . 



410 

414 
418 
424 
43i 
434 
442 
448 
45i 
455 
460 
467 

473 
480 

483 
488 

495 
5°4 
5io 
516 
522 
532 
442 

55o 
555 
564 
577 
586 

598 
606 



The Law of Love .... 618 

The Sabbath 630 

The Liberal Soul . . . .637 
Past, Present and Future . . 645 
Wonders of Nature . . .652 
Wonders of Art .... 667 

Words 677 

Oratory 684 

The Power of Music . . . 692 
Eccentricities of Genius . . 698 

True Chivalry 703 

Patriotism ' . 709 

Modesty 715 

Manly Beauty . . . . . 721 
Womanly Virtues . . . .726 

Hospitality 736 

Domestic Ties 744 

Philanthropy 752 

Marriage Vows 756 

Conjugal Fidelity .... 762 
The Hearth-Stone .... 768 

The True Wife 771 

The Crown of Honor . . 775 
The Good Old Days . . .778 
Respect the Aged . . . .781 
Well-Earned Rest .... 785 
Milestones of Life . . . .789 

Harvest Home 792 

The Grave . . . . . . 796 




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©HE (g^ADLE. 

"From the cradle to the grave" we reach for bet 
ter things, and no parent, with an honest heart, will be 
content to give his child no better things than he him- 
self has had. Although your aspirations for your 
child may prove to be but phantoms that continually 
elude your grasp, yet you may make them realities if 
you are willing to toil with the earnestness of a true 
man. To help you in this task shall be one of the 
leading objects of this book. 

The smallest children are nearest to God, as the 
smallest planets are nearest the sun. The clew of our 
destiny, wander where we will, lies at the cradle foot. 
Within the cradle lies the most cherished, the fondest, 
hopes of the true mother. The very helplessness of 
the tiny bit of humanity appeals with the greatest suc- 
cess to our love, and calls forth our most tender care. 
Our most joyous moments, as well as most profitable, 
are spent at the cradle's side. He builds for eternity 



8 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

who instructs the tender babe in the joys of heaven. 
Nothing can exceed the marvelous credulity of a little 
child, and no blacker crime can be committed than to 
impose upon it by falsehood. 

The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. 
The destinies of a nation are wrapped within the 
cradle blanket, if wisdom but guides the hand that 
tucks its edges down. The child is father to the man, 
but the mother plants the germ. The tender touch of 
love, like the steel placed to the magnet, draws the 
hidden forces from their deepest recess, and starts a 
life of eternal activity. 

Consider for a moment the condition of a new- 
born babe. What seeming contradictions are here ! 
What possibilities are wrapped up in that tiny frame 
and undeveloped mind! That little hand may some 
day wield the scepter of an empire ; it is now nerve- 
less and impotent. That tongue may some day move 
multitudes by its eloquence; it is now voiceless. That 
mind may some day master great problems — learn- 
ing much of God, his word, and his works ; it is now 
ignorant of the simplest truths. 

Had the period of our dependence been only as 
long as the brood remains with the parent bird, the 
endearing names of father and mother would have 
been empty sounds ; little opportunity would have 
been afforded to them for the formation of our char- 
acter, and one of the most pleasing illustrations of 
providential appointments would have been lost. 

How sublime a thing is such helplessness of in- 
fancy, such dependence of childhood! And how 






THE CRADLE. 9 

sacred is fatherhood and motherhood! Would God 
that we understood these things aright ! Then, in- 
deed, would " the hearts of the fathers be turned to 
their children." 

John Foster, on the birth of his son, wrote a friend, 
" If the fellow turns out well, I shall not so much mind 
about his being extra clever. It is goodness that the 
world is wretched for wanting." 

When the hand of death is laid upon the babe that 
has nestled for but a few brief months in its mother's 
arms, or the bright-eyed prattler who has made the 
household glad with his merriment, the feeling of 
those upon whom the blow has fallen must, at first, be 
one of utter and impenetrable gloom. The anguish of 
the mother as she lays her first-born in the grave, and 
the bitterness of heart with which the father returns 
from his enforced toil to the home which death has 
made desolate — these are feelings which, in the first 
burst of sorrow, no words of consolation may mitigate 
or assuage. 

And yet there are, in the death of little children, 
motives of consolation open to us from which we are 
sometimes estopped in the death of those of riper 
years — motives which, as the weeks pass on, may- 
appeal soothingly to those who have laid their dear 
ones in the grave, and help God's chastening to " yield 
the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are 
exercised thereby." 

Those who have lost an infant are never, as it 
were, without an infant child. Their other children 
grow up to manhood and womanhood and suffer all 



IO WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

the changes of mortality; but this one alone is ren- 
dered an immortal child, for death has arrested it with 
his kindly harshness, and blessed it into an eternal 
image of youth and innocence. 



41 



<9HE nUI^SBI^Y. 

It is idle to suppose that children will of necessity 
love their homes simply because there they eat, sleep 
and dwell. Father and mother are there, and there 
center the interests of the young lives, it is true, but 
as boys and girls grow beyond infancy they begin to 
have cravings of their own, and to show their separate 
individualities. Wise parents plan to make their chil- 
dren happy and satisfied at home. They do not take 
the happiness and satisfaction too much for granted, 
nor do they leave it to accident wholly, whether or not 
the house is pleasant in its atmosphere and ways. 

There should be room in every household for the 
children's treasures. If a room can be set aside for 
the boys' tools, their printing presses, scroll-saws, etc., so 
much the better. Boys who have in-door occupations 
which charm them will not be restless and eager for 
the street all the time when school hours are over. 
Both boys and girls should be encouraged to make 
collections of birds' eggs, ores, postage-stamps, curi- 
osities of wood and field, pressed ferns and flowers, 
shells from the seaside and quartz from the mountain, 
bits of bark, relics of mound-builders and Indian 



THE nursery; II 

hunters, old coins, newspapers and books of a by-gone 
day, and other like things which young people prize. 

She is a foolish mother who frowns on these things 
because they take space in the house or make a little 
confusion there. Swiftly, ah ! far too swiftly, we think 
when we grow older, our little ones are reaching up- 
ward to maturity. While they are young and can be 
moulded is it not the mother's duty to cultivate in them 
a love of nature, a love of study, a love of the beautiful, 
and this not by undue restraint, or pettish fault-finding, 
but by allowing them delights at home under her own 
eye? These collections quietly going on in farm-houses 
and town residences are affording inquisitive young 
folks just the opportunities they need for finding out 
many bits of geographical and historical information 
which lie out of the beaten track of the text-book, and 
which would never be discovered in the recitation-room. 
They are essential parts in home education. 

It is a maxim with the Jewish rabbins that. the love 
that is not accompanied with reproof is not genuine. 
But this must have its limits, and not be extended to 
those in whom there is nothing to reprove. Many a 
mother scolds her child for trifles under the mistaken 
notion that he will be corrupted by too much kindness 
and sympathy. 

I read somewhere lately " that we are not always 
as considerate toward children as we ought to be," 
which suggested the following question : Do we not 
often try children beyond what they ought to be re- 
quired to bear in the way of putting off attending to 
their wants — wants which to us seem unimportant, 



12 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

but to them are of the utmost consequence ? We for- 
get what a great length of time a day or even an hour 
seemed to us in childhood, and that " hope deferred 
maketh the heart sick." So we let the little one's 
"great expectations" wear him into ill-humor and fret- 
fulness through our failure to recognize how much more 
sensitive children are than we to disappointment and 
delay. Not that I advocate making the children of the 
house of greater importance than their elders, but 
might not their tempers and nervous system be saved 
many a strain by a little thought and care on the part 
of the mothers ? Childhood's trials are as real, and 
more keenly felt, than those of riper years. There are 
many parents who train their children rather in the 
way they choose for them than in the way they 
should go. 

The best paternity is that which can be at once 
mentor, counselor, sympathizer and friend ; that fits 
neatly the older-brother relationship without making 
display of it. General observation testifies that the 
most perfect government is most infrequently, most 
quietly and most gently exercised ; it lacks deeds, and 
it positively lacks threats, nor is it an after-hindrance. 
To influence the young to their being governed with- 
out their knowing it — by being at once of them, with 
them, and still above them — is the ideal type of success- 
ful management. 

A child is a veritable Athenian, always desiring to 
hear something new. As he matures he carries this 
need on and up with him, and he who would be a 
teacher must know this fact and feed this desire. It 



THE NURSERY. 1 3 

may be the source of great good or it may be the 
source of great evil. 

What terrible wrecks in life have resulted from the 
vicious influence of a trusted nurse ! How many of 
us look back at our own childhood and bitterly mourn 
the evil work wrought in our natures by thoughtless 
helpers. Our parents were unaware of the fire that 
they allowed to be kindled within us, and although in 
our mature years we have struggled, with the energy 
of despair, to quench its flames, yet it still smoulders 
to mock us with its dangerous presence. 

Father ! Mother ! Can you not understand, and 
will you not heed our tearful warning? Oh ! beware 
in time, that your child may not rise up and curse you 
for your negligence. Guard that child from those 
dangerous influences, from that deadly evil, which may 
end in moral death and mental weakness, if they do 
not destroy the body also. 

Be sure that you know where your child goes and 
who he plays with. Watch him with a jealous eye, 
and yet without interfering unnecessarily. Give him 
so much freedom that he will not feel you are a tyrant ; 
but teach him to restrain his desires at your command. 
Above all know where and with whom he sleeps at 
night. Insist upon his being at home before dark, un- 
less trusted friends are with him, and that he must 
sleep in his own bed. If he has a playmate to stay 
with him at night put them in separate beds, even if it 
is inconvenient to do so. 

Children spoiled in the nursery can seldom be 
mended in the sanctuary. And it is equally true of 



14 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

them, that if they are well-moulded in the nursery, and 
well-finished in the Sunday-school, it is hard to spoil 
them afterward. 

Would to God that we knew what an opportunity 
for bringing our children to their Saviour their helpless 
infancy and dependent childhood give us ! Their help- 
lessness is complete, but it is not abject, for they are 
redeemed by the blood of Christ, and their depend- 
ence creates our opportunity for teaching them to 
know and love Him. 

Lycurgus, iron-hearted law-giver of Lacedsemon, un- 
derstood but one thing of a male infant — it might make 
a soldier. The old Spartan theory made the state 
everything, the individual nothing. Hence that heart- 
less code which required that delicate or deformed 
children should be "exposed" — abandoned to wild 
beasts, or in some other fashion be put out of the 
way. 

No doubt we love them. We toil for them through 
winter and summer. We never rest. We think for 
them by day and dream of them by night. They fill 
our thoughts ; they create our anxieties ; they excite 
our hopes ; they alarm our fears. But, alas ! we love 
them in a blind sort of way — the love of higher in- 
stinct — when we do not know that for our children 
the best knowledge, and, indeed, the only indispensable 
knowledge, is the knowledge of God. The good old 
sentence tells us that it is better a great deal to be 
unborn than either unbred or bred amiss, yet it cannot 
but be a matter of very sad reflection to any parent 
to think within himself that he should be instrumental 






EARLY IMPRESSIONS. I 5 

in giving his child a body only to damn his souL 
Therefore let parents remember, that as the pater- 
nal is the most honorable relation, so it is also the 
greatest trust in the world, and that God will be a cer- 
tain and severe exactor of it ; and the more so because 
they have such weighty opportunities to discharge it, 
and that with almost infallible success. 

A mother once asked a man of wisdom, "At what 
age should I begin to teach my child?" " How old is 
he now?" inquired the sage. "Two years old," the 
mother answered. " Then," said he, " you have already 
lost about two years." 



Cai^ly Impressions. 

"Children are wnat their mothers are." Have 
you never walked through the dirty, dismal part of 
a city and heard little lips utter oaths and profane 
words in their childish ways? Dear children, are 
they alone to blame ? Little ones have sharp eyes. 

A lady was speaking in a light, playful way to a 
motherless one of something in her father's looks. 
The child mistook her manner for jesting and "making 
fun." The little face grew sadder and sadder, soon 
she covered it, crept under the table, gave way to 
violent tears, and nothing could pacify her, for her 
father was as dear to her as her life. 

" My teacher does so f " said a child illustrating the 
habit. When the teacher was informed of the schol- 



I 6 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

ar's remark he was not aware of his conduct in this 
respect, and was glad to correct the foolish, nervous 
habit. 

Have you never seen children of different schools 
"playing school" together, and each one wants every- 
thing done just as "my teacher" does it? Who of 
us cannot remember the words and ways of our 
teacher ? Parents, teachers, are we not eyes and ears 
to the little ones around us ? Each reader may make 
the application of the truth. 

Some years ago a native Greenlander came to the 
United States. It was too hot for him here, so he made 
up his mind to return home, and took passage on a ship 
that was going that way. But he died before he got 
back; and, as he was dying, he turned to those who 
were around him and said: "Go on deck, and see if 
you can see ice." "What a strange thing!" some 
would say. It was not a strange thing at all. When 
that man was a baby the first thing he saw, after his 
mother, was ice. His house was made of ice. The 
window was a slab of ice. He was cradled in ice. 
If he ever sat at a table, it was a table of ice. The 
water he drank was melted ice. The scenery about 
his house was ice. The mountains were of ice. The 
fields were of ice. And when he became a man he 
had a sledge and twelve dogs, that ran fifty miles a 
day. And many a day he stopped over a hole in the 
ice twenty-four hours, to put his spear in the head of 
any seal that might come there. He had always been 
accustomed to see ice; and he knew that if his com- 
panions on the ship could see ice it would be evidence 



EARLY IMPRESSIONS. I 7 

that he was near home. The thought of ice was the 
very last thought in his mind, as it was the very first 
impression made there. The earliest impressions are 
the deepest. Those things which are instilled into the 
hearts of children endure forever and forever. 

The recollection of childhood is never wholly oblit- 
erated from the mind. Make the days at home so 
happy that, when the children have grown to matu- 
rity, and have passed from your influence out into the 
world's toil and strife, they may look back upon their 
childhood as a joyous, beautiful, and sacred portion of 
their lives. 

Surely such memories will make their hearts 
stronger and their lives better. 

The mind is the heart's mouth. Thrust truth into 
the child's mind. If it is the bread of life to the child, 
it will not stay in his mind; it will sink down deeper; 
it will go to his heart ; and the hunger of the heart 
will grow by what it feeds on. The heart will crave 
more and more forever. "Blessed are they which do 
hunger and thirst after righteousness." Why? Be- 
cause they will eventually cease from hungering? JSTot 
at all. That would be no blessing. It would be a 
curse. But because they shall be filled, and keep on 
hungering and thirsting, to be filled again and again. 
Feed the sheep. Feed the lambs. Truth is the bread 
of life. Put truth into the mind. Teach, teach, 
teach ! 

Every first thing continues forever with the child ; 
the first color, the first music, the first flower, paint the 
foreground of his life. The first inner or outer object 
2 



1 8 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

of love, injustice, or such like, throws a shadow im- 
measurably far along his after years. 

Let the child-life dwell as long as it will in the heart 
of the child. Care and the sense of burdened respon- 
sibility will come all too swiftly. But the lingering 
glow and gladness of the early years shall touch with 
softness their hard lines. 

There are no more flagrant instances of unchari- 
table judging — and no cases in which it inflicts greater 
injury — than are often seen in the treatment of, children 
by grown persons. A trifling fault is magnified into a 
grave and deliberately planned offense. Motives are 
attributed to the thoughtless little transgressors which 
could only belong to a far more advanced stage of 
mental development ; and not only is gross injustice 
done and the keen pain of it inflicted, but many times 
the young soul is made disingenuous and revengeful 
by being unfairly suspected and accused of deceit or 
revenge. We need not be afraid of having too much 
charity; and a safe general rule is, when we can find 
nothing good to say of a child, to say nothing. 

President Garfield said, "That man will be a bene- 
factor of his race who shall teach us how to manage 
rightly the first years of a child's education." 

There is a process of education constantly going 
on in every dwelling which care and thought can make 
an unspeakable advantage, and at the same time con- 
tribute to make a happy home. To keep objects of 
pure and high interest before the children's minds, in a 
natural and suitable way — to have them supplied with 
such books as will occupy and interest — to talk not so 



EARLY IMPRESSIONS. 1 9 

much to them as with them about objects — to take note 
of and encourage any advance they make, and to * di- 
rect the flow not of a part of, but of the whole of their 
life — physical, mental, moral, without apparent interfer- 
ence or violence; this happy art — to be sought, prayed 
for, labored for — under God's blessing goes far to 
make a happy home. The tastes of children are natu- 
rally simple. Your child's wooden gun, cut with your 
own hand, perhaps, and made a link of connection be- 
tween your little boy and you, may be more to him, 
more influential over his character, more potent in 
binding his heart to you while living, his memory to 
you when you are dead, than a costly gift that you or- 
dered at the store. And when you, living a loving, 
natural life before your children, and with them, bend 
the knee in their midst, and speak to God of them and 
of yourself, there is a powerful restraint being put on 
natural evil, there is a pleasant type of heaven where 
the whole family that is named after Jesus shall be 
gathered together. 

The director of one of the largest State lunatic 
asylums in Germany, maintained at a recent meeting 
of physicians that much of the notorious increase of in- 
sanity in Germany is attributable to the excessive 
amount of work imposed upon the pupils in the na- 
tional schools. In order to acquit himself in any way 
creditably, a pupil of average ability must, it is calcu- 
lated, in addition to attending punctually and working 
diligently during school hours, work at home at least 
two hours daily when in the lower classes, three hours 
when in the middle, and four or five hours when in the 



20 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

upper classes. A boy, therefore, of say sixteen years 
or upward, has to work in school thirty-six hours and at 
home twenty-four hours a week, or, with the exception 
of Sundays, for ten hours every day of the week. Sev- 
eral doctors in private practice, who took part in the 
discussion which followed the reading of the paper, 
also spoke of the increasing frequency of morbid 
irritability in children, the result of overwork, which, 
although it might not always drive pupils into the luna- 
tic asylum, often lastingly and prejudicially affected 
their constitutions. 

Children who have a little money ought to practice 
saving something. Many boys and girls of to-day 
hardly know a higher use for any money that comes 
into their hands than spending it for some foolish 
thing as quickly as possible. To such a lesson in 
self-denial and economy is very important. As go 
the boy's pennies and dimes, so, very likely, will go 
the man's dollars and hundreds by-and-by. Without 
having the spirit of a miser, the person accustomed 
to save has more pleasure in laying up than a spend- 
thrift ever knows. 

Singing mothers generally have musical children. 
They cultivate in their offspring a love for song with- 
out knowing it. The infant, while listening to its 
mother's singing, takes a music lesson. 

The importance of early impressions is indeed 
generally acknowledged, and the permanent effects 
often produced by them are too obvious to be disre- 
garded; neither can it be denied that the power thus 
placed at the disposal of every mother is in many 



PARENT AND CHILD. 2 1 

instances judiciously used and turned to good account. 
But still the question presents itself, Whence is it that 
what is called Christian education fails, in so many 
instances, to produce even those outward and visible 
effects which might be fairly anticipated as the result 
of a systematic course of instruction in the principles 
of religion? Why is it that the education ordinarily 
afforded to children of parents professing Christianity 
has often so little sensible effect upon their moral 
character, their daily habits and conduct? The 
answer to this question is to be found in the fact 
that the want of conformity between the precepts of 
the mother and her example often renders her most 
anxious efforts in the education of her children feeble, 
if not powerless. 



*S* 



©A^ENT AND (9HILD. 

It is not the fondest parent who always loves his 
child the best, nor the most doting who will gain the 
child's most devoted and lasting love. On the other 
hand the severest parents are not those who govern 
most wisely and successfully. But let parental au- 
thority be tempered with fatherly affection, and let 
the rein of discipline be steadily held by this powerful 
but affectionate hand, and there shall the pleasure of 
God prosper; there will he give his blessing, even life 
fbrevermore. 

Denying a child the opportunity of education is 



22 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

worse than ordinary robbery, for it is a wrong that can 
never be atoned for. It robs the child of his seed-time 
and limits, mars and blights his harvest. No gifts of 
gold or land can atone for such a wrong. It is a per- 
sonal injury, inflicted on the helpless, and by the hand 
that of all others owed blessing and not blighting. 

"I had no idea," said a tiller of the soil, "that I made 
such crooked work planting those peas." And he 
looked with no little annoyance upon the tender green 
zigzagging up through the black loam. And so, we 
think, it will be with certain parents, when the planting 
they are doing now in their children's hearts starts to 
the surface. But it is by far more difficult to straighten 
a crooked row than to make a straight one. 

Our young people should be brought up from earli- 
est' childhood to familiarity with the church, and to the 
habit of going to church. Our Sunday-school children 
from five years upward should be trained to attend the; 
preaching service. If a child can attend but one ser- 
vice on Sunday it should attend the preaching service 
rather than the Sunday-school, for the sake of the spirit 
of reverence which the preaching service promotes. 
It is a good thing for father, mother, son and daughter 
to sit in the same pew in the morning together, to hear 
the standards set up and the earnest appeals of the 
gospel sounded forth. 

How often do we hear a parent say, "I never had 
anything as good as that when I was a child," and yet 
how cruel that is. How unjust and really mean spirited 
is the heart that can delight itself in the privations of 
another. A father will say of his sons, "Let them do 



PARENT AND CHILD. 23 

as I have done, and make their own way in die world." 
This is the opposite extreme of folly from the one who 
shields his sons from every hardship or industrious 
effort. It is a noble thing to place your children in a 
better position than you occupied, but it is no less a 
despicable and disgraceful thing to neglect to give them 
a proper training to fit them for that position. 

Most mothers need no counsel in this direction. 
The wrinkles on their brow, the pallor on their cheek, 
the thimble-mark on their finger, attest that they are 
faithful in their maternal duties. The bloom and the 
brightness and the vivacity of girlhood have given 
place for the grander dignity and usefulness and 
industry of motherhood. But there is a heathenish 
idea getting abroad in some of the families of Ameri- 
cans; there are mothers who banish themselves from 
the home circle. For three-fourths of their maternal 
duties they prove themselves incompetent. They are 
ignorant of what their children wear, and what their 
children eat, and what their children read. They in- 
trust to irresponsible persons these young immortals, 
and allow them to be under influences which may 
cripple their bodies, or taint their purity, or spoil their 
manners, or destroy their souls. God would not have 
a mother become a drudge or a slave; he would 
have her employ all the helps possible in this day in 
the rearing of her children. 

One of our noblest poets sang — 

" The bravest are the tenderest ; 
The loving are the daring." 

Napoleon, Washington and Garfield were loving 



24 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

and obedient to their mothers, whose approval they 
prized far above the noisy acclamations of millions. 
Our blessed Lord himself, in the hour of his great 
agony, cared tenderly for the sorrowing mother who 
had so gently guided his infant ways. 

Many a light-minded, light-hearted girl, who has 
danced and flirted and sentimentalized through her 
happy spring-time, finds the sweet compulsion of 
nature too strong for her; very soon she forgets all her 
follies and settles down into the real mother, whom love 
instructs in all things necessary; who shrinks from no 
trouble, is equal to all duties; is to her children nurse, 
companion, play-fellow, as well as doctress, seamstress, 
teacher, friend — everything in short. Her babe, climb- 
ing to her side, attests the pure delight in each fond 
heart. The mother's love for her child is the truest 
type of Christ's love for us. 

But even when that mother-love is there, is love suf- 
ficient? Not always. It will not make up for the lack 
of common sense, self-control, accurate and orderly 
ways — 

" The reason firm, the temperate will ; 
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill." 

Nor does the mere fact of parenthood by a sort of 
divine right constitute all parents infallible, as they are 
so apt to suppose, and by their conduct expect their 
children to believe. 

The child will not believe it, not after the very first, 
unless the parent prove it; and this by something 
stronger than bare assertion or natural instinct. It 
may be a dangerous thing to suggest, but I am afraid 




THE Pi S PET 



FOR WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH 



PARENT AND CHILD. 25 

the idea of some mysterious instinctive bond between 
parent and child is a mere superstition. No doubt the 
feeling is there, but it may be exercised equally with 
or without the tie of blood. 

The following admirable letter was written by the 
late Baron Alderson to his son, who, had left home for 
his first experience at boarding school: 

"I will sit down and write to you to-night before I go 
to sleep, that I may talk with my darling boy in imag- 
ination at least, though I cannot see his dear face. I 
was very sorry to part with you last Wednesday, but 
as it is for your good, I must submit to it, and your letter 
to-day makes me sure you will be happy in your new 
mode of life very soon. It must seem at first strange 
to you, and you will often think of home. I should be 
sorry that you did not, but in a little while, if you are 
a good boy — and I feel sure you will be so — you will 
find school a happy place. 

" I hear you are diligent and obliging. That gives 
me great pleasure, for I set much more store by dili- 
gence than by what people call talent or genius. A 
diligent boy is sure to do well, and if to it he adds tal- 
ent, he does excellently. But the merit is in making a 
good use of the talent entrusted to you. If the servant 
in the Gospel had had ten talents instead of one, and 
had hid them in a napkin, his lord would have equally 
thought him unworthy of reward. It was the diligent 
servant who was rewarded. 

" I shall be very glad if, when you write to me, you 
will tell me how you spend your time, and what lessons 
you are learning, what companions you have, which of 



26 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

them you like best, what games you play at, and all 
such like things. A letter should be all about oneself 
and one's own thoughts, and should be just as if you 
were sitting down to talk to me. 

"I think of you every day, morning and evening in 
particular, and please myself in thinking that when 
papa and mamma are praying for their dear boy, he 
may be doing so, too, for them. 

"There is a story of two lovers who agreed at the 
same hour to go and look at the moon every moon- 
light night, and that was a tie between them, for they 
felt then as if they were together. How much better 
is it to be looking, not to the thing created, but to God 
himself! That is indeed to be together really; to be 
praying all of us at once to Him is to be as it were 
united through him forever, and to make a beginning 
of heaven on earth. My own dear boy will remember 
this, and we shall not be separated then, but every day 
be together in spirit, if not in bodily presence." 

No wise farmer would entrust an inexperienced 
laborer with his lands and stock. A merchant would 
scarcely allow a blunderer to keep his books. Dear 
lady reader, would you give a valuable piece of velvet 
or silk into the hands of a person of whose skill as a 
cutter and fitter you have no positive assurance? 
Behold with how much care men and women proceed 
in matters like these, yet how indifferent they are as 
regards the skilfulness of the hands, and superiority 
of the minds, that are entrusted with the education of 
the immortal souls of those children whom God has 
entrusted to them. 



PARENT AND CHILD. 2 J 

Interest the child in all that he sees about him — 
the rising and setting of the sun; the coming and 
going of the moon and stars, and various other of the 
common phenomena of the heavens. Talk to him of 
the falling rain; the exquisite and perfectly formed 
crystals of snow; the gathering of dew and frost, and 
the formation of ice. Not scientifically of course — 
that is not needed; but simply and naturally. If he 
can be interested in all of this — and there are few 
children who cannot be in a greater or less degree — 
what a world of thought is opened before him! Or, if 
his ideas are more confined to earth, the very ground 
upon which he treads is full of instruction. Even the 
rocks and the stones are replete with interest. The 
murmuring of the waters, the hum of insects, the song 
of birds — all will be full of delight and interest to him 
when he has once learned to listen and observe. And, 
as a love for these things takes possession of his 
heart, evil loves and desires will be crowded out. 
Once awaken an interest in insect and bird, and the 
propensity which so many evince to hurt and to kill 
will no more be found. Such a child will be gentle, 
tender, benevolent. It cannot be otherwise. And 
one can easily imagine what the future man or woman 
will be; for "children are but grown persons in min- 
iature." 

From these things pass on to others. Speak to the 
child of trees and flowers; of everything, in short, 
which God has planted to make our earth beautiful 
and good. There are lessons enough to be drawn 
from all. With the flower direct his attention to the 



2& WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

form, color and growth; with the tree to its beauty, 
strength, and uses. Teach him to listen to the music 
of the winds sighing and moaning through them. This 
will touch a plaintive chord in his heart, which always 
elevates and refines. Show him the grace and sym- 
metry of a forest in quiet; its strength and grandeur 
in a storm ; teaching him that God rules and reigns 
in all. 

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their 
griefs and fears; they cannot utter the one, nor will 
they utter the other. Children sweeten labors, but 
they make misfortunes more bitter; they increase the 
cares of life, but they mitigate the remembrance of 
death. The perpetuity by generation is common to 
beasts; but memory, merit, and noble works, are 
proper to men — and surely a man shall see the 
noblest works and foundations have proceeded from 
childless men, which have sought to express the 
images of their minds where those of their bodies 
have failed — so the care of posterity is most in them 
that have no posterity. They that are the first rais- 
ers of their houses are most indulgent towards their 
children, beholding them as the continuance, not only 
of their kind, but of their work; and so both children 
and creatures. 

"Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, lest 
they be discouraged." If the life of a child be embit- 
tered, the result is shyness and secret aversion. Even 
a child feels itself wronged, and a sense of bitterness 
is implanted in its heart. We can never think with- 
out pity of the parent who lost a promising*' son by 



FILIAL LOVE. 29 

death, and was haunted through life by his parental 
severity. "My boy," he said to a friend, "used to 
think me cruel, and he had too much reason to do so; 
but he did not know how I loved him at the bottom of 
my heart; and now it is too late!" 



*!*■> 



Filial Iioye. 

There is not on earth a more lovely sight than the 
unwearied care and attention of children to their par- 
ents. Where filial love is found in the heart we will 
answer for all the other virtues. No young man or 
woman will turn out basely, we sincerely believe, who 
has parents respected and beloved. A child, affection- 
ate and dutiful, will never bring the gray hairs of its par- 
ents to the grave, f h e wr etch who breaks forth from 
wholesome restraint and disregards the laws of his 
country must have first disobeyed his parents, showing 
neither love nor respect for them. It is seldom the case 
that a dutiful son is found in the ranks of vice among 
the wretched and degraded. Filial love will keep men 
from sin and crime. There never will come a time 
while your parents live when you will not be under 
obligations to them. The older they grow the more 
need will there be for your assiduous care and atten- 
tion to their wants. The venerable brow and frosty 
hair speak loudly to the love and compassion of the 
child. If sickness and infirmity make them at times 
fretful, bear with them patiently, not forgetting that 



30 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

time ere long may bring you to need the same atten- 
tion. Filial love will never go unrewarded. 

A friend of mine said to me yesterday, "All the 
money you ever handled couldn't buy that piece of 
paper." With that he handed a manifold soiled scrap 
on which at first I could see nothing. At length I 
deciphered in rude, disjointed letters the two words, 
"Dear Papa." He had discovered it in the play-house 
of his little daughter, who died only a few days ago. 
Sometime, when, in the midst of her play, her little 
heart had turned toward him she had scrawled these 
two words — and then, having borne testimony of her 
love, she had thrown the paper away. 

A remarkable case of filial love was that of a boy, 
confined in the Kansas penitentiary, who at the age of 
sixteen pleaded guilty to the crime of murder for the 
purpose of shielding his father, who was the guilty 
one. Not until after the death of his father was it 
found that he was innocent. 

Most boys who become successful men are thought- 
ful for their mothers. A Montreal millionaire, Harri- 
son Stephens, Esq., has recently died, who engaged, 
when seventeen years old, with an elder brother and a 
companion to build twenty rods of the Champlain 
Canal. At the end of a week the others threw up the 
job in discouragement, but Harrison persevered and 
in due time received seventy-five dollars. With a part 
of these first earnings he stepped into a store on his 
way home and bought his mother a dress. He finally 
became a large importer and trader in Montreal, but, 
so long as they lived his parents received from him 



FILIAL LOVE. 3 1 

every attention. No boy or girl can become truly 
great who neglects the comfort of father and mother. 

o o 

"I'm afraid you will have none left for yourself," 
we heard a little lad say to his mother, as she helped 
him for the second time to toast. And the words were 
like music dreamed of. Why do not the children think 
oftener of mother, so that our hearts will become ac- 
customed to their doing so, and we no longer thrill 
with strange sensations whenever we meet with a cir- 
cumstance like the above. Surely they would, did 
they more fully realize what a heaven they would thus 
convert this chill world into. 

Home love is the best love. The love that you are 
born to is the. sweetest you will have on earth. You, 
who are so anxious to escape from the home-nest, 
pause a moment and remember this is so. Never 
again, after strangers have broken the beautiful bond, 
will there be anything so sweet as the little circle of 
mother, father and children, where you are cherished, 
protected, praised, and kept from harm. You may 
not know it now, but you will know it some day. 

The three sons of an Eastern queen tried to show 
their love for their mother by gifts laid upon her grave. 
The spectators most applauded one who made a liba- 
tion of his own blood. But how much more noble and 
truly great is that son who so lives and loves his 
mother that after death he may have no cause for 
remorse, and she may carry into the spirit world treas- 
ures beyond estimation, jewels of love that her son 
gave her. 

The story of what you have done, or what you 



32 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

have written, of the influence you have exerted, has 
gone back to the old homestead — for there is some 
one always ready to carry good tidings — and that 
story makes the needle in the old mother's tremulous 
hand fly quicker, and the flail in the father's hand 
come down upon the barn floor with a vigorous 
thump. Parents love to hear good news from their 
children. Do you send them good news always ? 

Look out for the young man who speaks of his 
father as "the governor," "the squire" or the "old 
chap." Look out for the young woman who calls her 
mother her "maternal ancestor" or the "old woman." 
"The eye that mocketh at his father, and refuseth to 
obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it 
out, and the young eagles shall eat it." 

God grant that all these parents may have the 
great satisfaction of seeing their children grow up 
Christians. But O ! the pang of that mother who, af- 
ter a life of street-gadding and gossip retailing, hang- 
ing on the children the fripperies and follies of this 
world, sees those children tossed out on the sea of life 
like foam on the wave, or nonenties in a world where 
only bravery and stalwart character can stand the 
shock! But blessed be the mother who looks upon her 
children as sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. 

On one occasion a father found it necessary to 
punish his little daughter. But Mary climbed up into 
his lap, and, throwing her arms around his neck, said : 
"Papa, I do love you." "Why do you love me, my 
child?" the father asked. "Because you try to make 
me good, papa." 



PARENTS' DUTY. 3$ 

Filial affection is the corner-stone of good morals 
and the most essential element of order and discipline 
in the state. Even in the republics of antiquity the 
rulers were styled fathers. The very name "father" 
is itself a law of justi'ce and imposes the highest obli- 
gations. 



<§HE ©AGENTS' DUTY. 

Let it be insisted on with all possible emphasis 
that parenthood is fatherhood and motherhood. In 
this complicated yet simple relation the Bible and Na- 
ture alike make the father the responsible head, and 
yet in no sense is he more essential, to the perfection 
of family life than the mother. Whatever duties, 
therefore, we shall find enjoined in the Word of God 
upon the father in the instruction and discipline of his 
children, these are the mother's duties also. 

The parent holds a mystic key that no other hand 
can fit to the wards of its locks. If the parent does 
not do his work, it is forever undone. So left un- 
done, the parent is guilty and the child wronged, and 
wronged irreparably. 

It is a pitiful and shameful sight to see a father so 
swallowed up by love of money, so consumed by am- 
bition, that he has no time to teach his children the 
ways of wisdom and life. 

The mere enforcement of good conduct is not 
enough ; the mere inculcation of sound principle is 
not enough. If we would truly " bring up our chil- 



34 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

dren in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," it is 
not enough that we simply teach them what is right. 
True knowing, true doing, and true being, involve 
each other. They go together, and cannot, without 
disappointment and defeat, be separated. 

The following are worthy of being printed in let- 
ters of gold and placed in a conspicuous position in 
every household : 

From your children's early infancy inculcate the 
necessity of instant obedience. Unite firmness with 
gentleness. Let your children always understand that 
you mean exactly what you say. Never promise them 
anything unless you are sure you can give them what 
you promise. If you tell a child to do anything, show 
him how to do it, and see that it is done. Always 
punish your children for wilfully disobeying you, but 
never punish them when you are angry. Never let 
them perceive that they can vex you or make you lose 
your self-command. 

Never smile at any of their actions of which you 
do not approve, even though they are somewhat 
amusing. If they give way to petulance and temper, 
wait till they are calm, and then gently reason with 
them on the impropriety of their conduct. Remember 
that a little present punishment, when the occasion 
arises, is much more effectual than the threatening of 
a greater punishment should the fault be renewed. 
Never give your children anything because they cry 
for it. On no account allow them to do at one time 
what you have forbidden, under the same circum- 
stances, at another. 



PARENTS DUTY. 35 

Teach them that the only sure and easy way to 
appear good is to be good. Accustom them to make 
their little recitals the perfect truth. Never allow of 
tale-bearing. Teach them that self-denial, not self- 
indulgence, is the appointed and sure method of se- 
curing happiness. Above all things, instruct them 
from the word of God, taking Jesus for their example 
in patience, meekness and love ; teaching them to 
pray morning and evening, and during the day once 
or oftener, as they grow up, as' the only preservative 
against error, weakness and sin. 

The sacred books of the ancient Persians say: If 
you Would be holy, instruct your children, because all 
the good acts they perform will be imputed to you. 

Words and examples always come back to the 
young, and influence them for good as well as for evil. 
For nothing — not even a word or example — is ever 
forgotten or lost. We cannot commit a wrong with- 
out a punishment following close at its heels. When we 
break a law of eternal justice, it echoes throughout 
the world. Words and deeds may be considered 
slight things ; yet they are not temporary, they are 
eternal. An idle or a bad word never dies. It may 
come up against us in the future — twenty years, a 
hundred years hence — long after we are dead. " Every 
idle word," says the Master, "that men shall speak, 
they shall give an account thereof in the day of judg- 
ment ; for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by 
thy words thou shalt be condemned." 

Evil deeds and evil examples have the same resur- 
rection. They never die, but influence all time. They 



36 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

descend like an inheritance. The memory of a life 
does not perish with the life itself. What is done re- 
mains, and can never be undone. Thomas of Mal- 
mesbury said, " There is no action of a man in this 
life which is not the beginning of so long a chain of 
consequences as that no human providence is high 
enough to give us a prospect to the end." " Every 
atom," says Babbage, " impressed with good or ill, re- 
tains at once the motions which philosophers and 
sages have imparted to it, mixed and combined in ten 
thousand ways with all that is worthless and base. 
The air itself is one vast library, on whose pages are 
written forever all that man has ever said, or whispered, 
or done." 

We often think when we hear of parents beating 
their children, that they should rather be inflicting the 
punishment on themselves. They have been the 
means of bringing into being the inheritors of their 
own moral nature. The child does not make his own 
temper, nor has any control, while a child, over its 
direction. If the parents have conferred an irritable 
temper on the child, it is a duty on their part to exer- 
cise self-control, forbearance and patience, so that the 
influence of daily life may, in the course of time, cor- 
rect and modify the defects of its birth. 

But "the child's will must be broken!" There is 
no greater fallacy than this. Will forms the founda- 
tion of character. Without strength of will there will 
be no strength of purpose. What is necessary, is not 
to break the child's will, but to educate it in proper 
directions; and this is not to be done through the 



PARENTS' DUTY. $7 

agency of force or fear. A thousand instances might 
be cited in proof of this statement. 

When the parent or teacher relies chiefly upon pain 
for controlling the child's will, the child insensibly 
associates duty and obedience with fear and terror. 
And when you have thus associated command over the 
will of others with pain, you have done all that you 
could to lay the foundations of a bad character — a 
bad son, a bad husband, a bad father, a bad neighbor, 
and a bad citizen. Parents may not think of this when 
they are beating into their children their own faults ; 
but it is true nevertheless. There is no doubt that 
the command over the wills of others by pain leads by 
degrees to all the several stages of irritation, injustice, 
cruelty, oppression, and tyranny. 

Every mother must be in degree a sort of Hannah. 
She may bring her son his little coat — she may come 
up to see him yearly in the Temple ; but with all that 
she must give him to God. To give our children up 
to God, to end with a training totally different from 
that with which we began, to be obliged to recognize 
our own powerlessness, and learn to sit still with 
folded hands, resigning them and their fortunes into 
their own hands — or rather into higher hands than 
either theirs or ours — this is no easy lesson for parents. 

A little girl of six — whose only idea of death was 
of " going up into the sky," and being made perfectly 
happy and lovely and good — after being taken to see 
an old woman of ninety-nine, said, " Oh, mamma, 
please don't live to be ninety-nine. You'll be so ugly ! " 

Alas, there comes a time when we know we must 



$8 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

be "ugly," more or less ; physically, and perhaps mor- 
ally, too; when the worn-out body will not respond to 
the mind, or, may be, even the mind is wearing out, so 
that by no possibility can we give pleasure, and may 
give much pain, even to our best beloved. 

This is a hard, time ; nor is it wonderful that par- 
ents and children sometimes succumb to it, and the 
relation once so sweet and easy becomes a heavy 
burden. But there are parents who make it much 
heavier than it need to be by their extreme selfishness, 
their utter want of recognition of the fact that the 
most duteous child that ever was born cannot live 
forever in a sick room or beside an arm chair. The 
younger life has to last long after the elder one is 
ended. 

A parent, unlike a poet, is not born — he is made. 
There are certain things which he has at once to learn, 
or he will have no more influence over his child than 
if he were a common stranger. First, he must insti- 
tute between himself and his child that which is as im- 
portant between child and parent as between man and 
God — the sense, not of absolute obedience, as it is so 
often preached, but of absolute reliance, which pro- 
duces obedience. To gain obedience, you must first 
set yourself to deserve it. Whatever you promise 
your little one, however small the thing may seem to 
you, and whatever trouble it costs you, perform it. 
Never let the doubt once enter that innocent mind 
that you say what you do not mean, or will not act up 
to what you say. Make as few prohibitory laws as 
you possibly can, but, once made, keep to them. In 



THE TRUE HOME. 39 

what is granted, as in what is denied, compel yourself, 
however weary or worried or impatient, to administer 
always evenhanded justice. "Just laws, impartially ad- 
ministered," is a system much more likely to secure 
your child's real affection than all the petting and hu- 
moring so generally indulged in to give pleasure or 
save trouble, not to your little ones, but to yourself. 



She <5i^ue P?ome. 



The place of training for the young is pre-emi- 
nently the home. It is in the bosom of the family 
that those impressions are made, and that culture 
bestowed, which, more than anything else, determine, 
under God, the character of the soul for time and 
eternity. 

Home is the sacred refuge of our life. Mrs. Wil- 
ling says, incivilities in the home are like sand in the 
eyes and gravel in the shoes. No wonder they who 
have only sour looks and cross words, when they 
ought to receive loving sympathy and care, are easily 
lured to destruction. 

Out from under flaming" chandeliers, and off from 
imported carpets, and down the granite stairs, there 
has come a great crowd of children in this day, un- 
trained, saucy, incompetent for all practical duties of 
life, ready to be caught in the first whirl of crime and 
sensuality. Indolent and unfaithful mothers will make 
indolent and unfaithful children. 



4-0 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

Many a child goes astray, not because there is a 
want at home, but simply because home lacks sun- 
shine. A child needs smiles as much as the flowers 
need sunbeams. Children look little beyond the pres- 
ent moment. If a thing pleases, they are apt to seek 
it ; if it displeases, they are apt to avoid it. If home 
is a place where faces are sour and words harsh, and 
fault-finding is ever on' the ascendant, they will spend 
as many hours as possible elsewhere. "That home is 
unworthy of the name where a child dare not utter a 
fond or even a foolish wish. God will never refuse 
our human lips the right of utterance." 

Don't live in the back end of your house. The 
boys will prefer the saloon to the kitchen. Don't be 
afraid of the coal bill or wood pile. It is cheaper to 
have a warm parlor than to pay liquor bills. Put books 
and papers on your tables instead of wine or cider. 
Clear brains will honor the family record more than 
drunkards. Marry into the Cheeryble family and keep 
clear of Grumblers. Pull the latch-string in for gos- 
sips, and hang it out for the poor, that yours may be 
a house of mercy. In a dying world don't spend too 
much time on ruffles and killing flies. 

Your children's bodies are of more value than fine 
clothes, lace curtains, or Brussels carpets, and their 
minds and souls are of eternal worth. Don't starve 
to-day, to riot to-morrow ; don't hoard and scrimp for 
years that you may be generous in your graves. Be 
your own almoner, and see your children's happiness 
while they are still under the parent roof. Better 
have a Sunday home-service of praise than break 



THE TRUE HOME. 4 1 

your own and your neighbors' Sabbath by visiting and 
dining that day. 

Nobody must be morally the worse for living under 
our roof, if we can possibly help it. It is the minimum 
of our duties to make sure that the temptations to 
misconduct or intemperance are not left in any one's 
way, or bad feelings suffered to grow up, or habits of 
moroseness or domineering, formed, or quarrels kept 
hot as if they were toast before the kitchen fire. As 
much as possible, on the contrary, everybody must be 
helped to be better ; not made better by act of the 
drawing-room, remember; that is impossible, but helped 
to be better. The way to do this is not to scold or 
exhort, but rather to spread through the house such an 
atmosphere of frank confidence and kindliness with ser- 
vants, and of love and trust with children and relations, 
that bad feeling and doings will really have no place, 
no temptation, and if they intrude, will soon die out. 

Good humor is rightly reckoned a most valuable aid 
to happy home life. An equally good and useful 
faculty is a sense of humor, or the capacity to have a 
little amusement along with the humdrum cares and 
work of life. We all know how it brightens up things 
generally to have a lively, witty companion, who sees 
the ridiculous points of things, and who can turn an 
annoyance into an occasion for laughter. It does a 
great deal better to laugh over some domestic mishaps 
than to cry or scold over them. It is well to turn off 
an impatient question sometimes, and to regard it from 
a humorous point of view, instead of becoming irri- 
tated about it. 



42 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

"Wife, what is the reason I can never find a clean 
shirt?" exclaimed a good but rather impatient hus- 
band, after rummaging all through the wrong drawer. 
His wife looked at him steadily for a moment, half 
inclined to be provoked, then with a comical look she 
said, "I never could guess conundrums; I give it up." 
Then he laughed, and they both laughed, and she went 
and got his shirt, and he felt ashamed of himself and 
kissed her, and then she felt happy; and so what might 
have been an occasion for unkind feelings and hard 
words became just the contrary, all through the little 
vein of humor that cropped out to the surface. 

Surely since the wreck of Eden there has appeared 
among the children of men no picture so fair, so noble, 
so inspiring and so full of hope for both worlds, as a 
well-ordered and truly Christian family. Here indeed 
are repeated, from day to day, the miracles of Provi- 
dence and the wonders of grace. 

Though it may not be always easy to clearly define 
what constitutes a home, there is no difficulty at all in 
discovering what does not. A fine house, with all the 
most modern improvements, well-fitting doors and 
windows, smokeless chimneys, dry walls, convenient 
water supply, excellent drainage, a perfect immunity 
from draughts and insect life, good servants, and good 
tradesmen in our immediate vicinity, go far to consti- 
tute a comfortable residence; while tasteful furniture, 
rare pictures, beautiful ornaments, and a good collec- 
tion of good books, add still greater charms ; yet all 
these, and a thousand other attractions pleasant to the 
eye and very conducive to physical comfort, would 



THE TRUE HOME. 43 

never constitute a really happy home, without two 
other grand qualities — qualities like, yet unlike; inde- 
pendent, yet each to a great extent dependent on the 
other for its usefulness ; each insufficient of itself to 
do all; each beautiful, but doubly so when allied; each 
within the reach of the humblest as well as the high- 
est — more lovely, as well as more useful, in the cottage 
than in the palace; each a cornerstone of happiness, 
and forming together the very foundation of peace — 
two grand, simple qualities, all-powerful in heaven and 
on earth — love and order! 

Let any person who possesses a home of any sort 
or condition whatever look round and observe how 
far it is governed by those twin sisters ; consider well 
if every action of every day is prompted by love, and 
carried out by order; if affection is the ruling principle, 
punctuality the ruling practice of every-day life. 

Some homes are full of love and sunshine for 
strangers, and all ugliness and gloom for the ones for 
whom they exist. To constitute a truly happy home 
there should be pretty little personal adornments on 
the part of the wife, who hereby shows a desire to 
please her husband and to add to the general attractions 
of her home. A pleasant word on her part, when the 
over-worked man comes home, often eats away the 
raw edge of some trouble on his mind, and draws out 
a corresponding desire to be both agreeable and 
respectful, which characteristics are always accom- 
panied by affection. If cheerfulness and amiability 
are not cultivated, rudeness, roughness and impatience 
will soon be followed by insolence ; and when sweet 



44 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

temper gives way to anger and discord, the home- 
circle is no longer attractive, and is almost certain to 
be shunned. 

Nothing makes a home so happy as the perpetual 
sunshine of a contented disposition there.' None of 
the little troubles of life arrest progress or pleasure in 
that home; there is always a rainbow to bridge the 
rift. The sky is always blue, and the wind blows from 
the southwest, where that disposition works its will; 
all things move in accordant music and measure where 
the happy nature's voice gives the dominant key. A 
person with the temperament which creates this for- 
tunate disposition, or gives it full play, is not only a 
blessing to himself or herself, but to all society as well ; 
everything is more gentle and direct in movement, all 
wheels and ways run more smoothly, for the treatment 
of such individuals, and their own habit of always 
looking on the sunny side obliges people in their 
immediate neighborhood also to see the silver lining 
of the cloud in spite of themselves. 

What such happy people are to those about them 
it requires personal experience of them to know in 
the full extent, for words would completely fail to tell ; 
they are the consolers of trouble, the spurs to en- 
deavor, the sympathizers in joy, the beguilers of 
tedium. With their own buoyancy they bear every 
one's burdens, with their sunshine they banish every 
one's shadow, their own inner and almost inexhausti- 
ble happiness overflows on all within reach, and they 
know how to turn Pandemonium into Paradise. 

It is not wealth, but taste, that can make a home 



THE TRUE HOME. 45 

truly beautiful. A lady of refined instinct and train- 
ing, by means of a few cheap, but of their kind good, 
pictures, book engravings, or cartoons, and such like, 
a bundle of strips and straws, some pretty Japanese 
or Chinese decorations, the judicious appliance and 
arrangement of such pretty things as an artistic taste 
will suggest, will do more toward making a little par- 
lor charming, homelike and artistic, than thousands of 
dollars spent in vulgar display and inartistic arrange- 
ment. 

Your home can be made beautiful by a little labor. 
A few trees set out here and there to give their cool- 
ing shadows when the fierce sunlight falls. A few 
flowers yonder to brighten with their contrasting colors 
the green grass you should have here. A little white- 
wash on that fence and barn. All these cost nothing, 
or next to nothing, and they vastly add to the appear- 
ance of your place as well as to its comfort. Make 
your homes beautiful. 

I have peeped into quiet "parlors" where the 
carpet is clean and not old, and the furniture polished 
and bright; into "rooms" where the chairs are deal 
and the floor carpetless; into "kitchens" where the 
family live, and the meals are cooked and eaten, and 
the boys and girls are as blithe as the sparrows in the 
thatch overhead; and I see that it is not so much 
wealth, nor learning, nor clothing, nor servants, nor 
toil, nor idleness, nor town, nor country, nor rank, nor 
station, as tone and temper, that make life joyous or 
miserable, that render homes happy or wretched. And 
I see, too, that in town or country, God's grace and 



46 . WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

good sense make life what no teachers, or accomplish- 
ments, or means, or society, can make it, the opening 
stave of an everlasting psalm, the fair beginning of an 
endless existence, the goodly, modest, well-propor- 
tioned vestibule to a temple of God's building, that 
shall never decay, wax old, or vanish away. 

Do not be afraid of a little fun at home, good peo- 
ple. Do not shut up your houses, lest the sun should 
fade your carpets, and your hearts, lest a laugh should 
shake down a few of the musty old cobwebs that are 
hanging there. Young people must have fun and re- 
laxation somewhere ; if they do not find it at their 
own hearthstones, they will seek it at other and less 
profitable places. Therefore let the fire burn brightly 
at night in winter, and let the doors and windows be 
cheerfully thrown open in summer, and make the 
homestead delightful with all those little arts that par- 
ents so well understand. Do not repress the buoyant 
spirits of your children. Half an hour's merriment 
within doors, and merriment of a home, blots out the 
remembrance of many a care and annoyance during 
the day; and the best safeguard that they can take 
with them into the world is the unseen influence of the 
bright little home sanctum. 

Parents, worried and absorbed with the business of 
life, too often make home unattractive to their children 
by making them feel that they represent simply bur- 
dens in the household. The hearts of children are 
sensitive, and older ones should always be considerate 
in their actions towards them. They should be made 
to feel that they are of some importance at home, in 



THE TRUE HOME. 47 

order that they may become so attached to it that it 
will be to them a safeguard and refuge from the many 
pitfalls that beset their youthful steps. The oppor- 
tunity of parents in this direction is of vast and im- 
measurable importance, and if rightly improved will 
more than repay in years yet to come. 

The children of the home circle, as they grow to 
years of accountability, are not left without responsi- 
bility in this direction. How often is the joy and com- 
fort of home blighted by the unkind and disobedient 
acts of children who wholly disregard their great op- 
portunities for good and heap dishonor on their par- 
ents. But there are those who shed light and joy 
wherever they go by their uniformly kind words and 
acts, whose chief aim it seems to be to make others 
happy; and what centers of joy they are in the home 
circle. The little things that they have observed have 
resulted in a grand aggregate of good, that is crown- 
ing their parents with honor and making their own 
hearts happier and better. 

One of the greatest evils known in the family circle 
is the disrespect so frequently shown between mem- 
bers, one to another, in speech, action and dress. The 
gruff "yes " or " no " of husband to wife, in answer to 
a pleasant query, leads to unpleasant consequences, 
and begets a cold, calculating style of address on 
either side, which, sooner or later, is adopted by the 
younger members, and the love and affection which 
should reign within is dispelled like dew before the 
morning sun. The indifference often shown in little acts 
of duty, and the manner in which they are performed, 



48 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

seem to carry the impression, "I'm glad that's out of 
the way; don't trouble me again." In dress and per- 
sonal appearance the husband goes unkempt and 
unshaven, and the wife slipshod and shabby, Any- 
thing is good enough for home when there are no 
strangers about. Thus are habits of disrespect formed, 
and one of the greatest dangers of home bred and 
fostered. 

We may not all have equal opportunities of doing 
good at home, but we have something to do to make 
that home happier, and if we are doing it to the best 
of our ability we are meeting all that is required. If, 
in the daily walk of life, we would pay more atten- 
tion to the little things there would be fewer great 
things demanding our consideration. 

No unhappiness in life is equal to unhappiness at 
home. All other personal miseries can be better 
borne than the terrible misfortune of domestic disun- 
ion, and none so completely demoralizes the nature. 
The anguish of disease itself is modified, ameliorated, 
even rendered blessed, by the tender touch, the dear 
presence of the sympathetic beloved; and loss of for- 
tune is not loss of happiness where family love is left. 
But the want of that love is not supplied by anything. 
Health, fortune, success, nothing has its full savor 
when the home is unhappy ; and the greatest triumphs 
out-of-doors are of no avail to cheer the sinking heart 
when the misery within has to be encountered. 

Our homes are like instruments of music. The 
strings that give melody or discord are the members. 



THE MOTHER S HAND. 49 

If each is rightly attuned they will all vibrate in har- 
mony ; but a single discordant string jars through the 
instrument and destroys its sweetness. 



<9HE fflOTHEI^S F)AND. 

There are no persons in a community who need 
to be so wise and well-informed as mothers. 

O ! this work of culture in children for this world 
and the next ! This child is timid, and it must be 
roused up and pushed out into activity. This child is 
forward, and he must be held back and tamed down 
into modesty and politeness. Rewards for one, pun- 
ishments for another. That which will make George 
will ruin John. The rod is necessary in one case, 
while a frown of displeasure is more than enough in 
another. Whipping and a dark closet do not exhaust 
all the rounds of domestic discipline. There have 
been children who have grown up and gone to glory 
without ever having had their ears boxed. 

O ! how much care and intelligence are necessary 
in the rearing of children ! But in this day, when there 
are so many books on the subject, no parent is excus- 
able in being ignorant of the best mode of bringing 
up a child. If parents knew more of dietetics there 
would not be so many dyspeptic stomachs, weak 
nerves and inactive livers among children. If parents 
knew more of physiology there would not be so many 
curved spines, and cramped chests, and inflamed 



50 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

throats, and diseased lungs, as there are among chil- 
dren. If parents knew more of art, and were in sym- 
pathy with all that is beautiful, there would not be so 
many children coming out in the world with boorish 
proclivities. If parents knew more of Christ, and 
practiced more of his religion, there would not be so 
many little feet already starting on the wrong road, 
and all around us voices of riot and blasphemy would 
not come up with such ecstasy of infernal triumph. 

Every mother gets full pay for all the prayers and 
tears in behalf of her children. That man useful in 
commercial life ; that man prominent in a profession ; 
that master mechanic — why, every step he takes in 
life has an echo of gladness in the old heart that long 
ago taught him to be a Christian, and heroic and ear- 
nest. 

Now, while I congratulate all Christian mothers 
upon the wealth and the modern science which may 
afford them all kinds of help, let me say that every 
mother ought to be observant of her children's walk, 
her children's behavior, her children's food, her chil- 
dren's looks, her children's companionships. 

One hundred and twenty clergymen were together, 
and they were telling their experience and their an- 
cestry ; and of the one hundred and tweaty clergy- 
men how many of them, do you suppose, assigned as 
the means of their conversion the influence of a Chris- 
tian mother ? One hundred out of one hundred and 
twenty ! Philip Doddridge was brought to God by 
the Scripture lesson on the Dutch tile of a chimney 
fireplace. The mother thinks she is only rocking a 



THE MOTHERS HAND. 5 1 

child, but at the same time she may be rocking the 
fate of nations, rocking the glories of heaven. The 
same maternal power that may lift the child up may 
press a child down. 

At home the mother is the center of attraction. 
Her influence for good or evil is immeasurable. Na- 
tions feel its effects. The good kings of Israel, such 
as Josiah, were sons of pious, God-fearing mothers. 
The bane of the nation was in the nursery of her 
kings. Look into the biographies of Polycarp, Ed- 
wards, Gregory, Dwight, and thousands of others who^ 
are hailed as the bold defenders of the truth, and you 
will find they were, without exception, the sons of 
pious, faithful mothers. The skeptic has been brought 
to the saving knowledge of the truth through the pre- 
vious training and prayers of a sainted mother, who,, 
though dead, yet speaketh effectually to his heart and 
conscience. The nursery of the family is the nursery 
of the church. Begin early. Let her watch every ex- 
pression of the face before the lips begin to speak. I 
wish it were written on every mind and heart by the 
finger of God that the minds of children are like wax 
to receive, but like marble to hold, every impression 
made upon them for good or evil. 

A daughter came to a worldly mother and said she 
was anxious about her sins, and she had been praying 
all night. The mother said : " O, stop praying ! I 
don't believe in praying. Get over all these religious 
notions and I'll give you a dress that will cost $500, 
and you may wear it next week to that party." The 
daughter took the dress, and she moved in the gay 



52 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

circle, the gayest of all the gay, that night ; and sure 
enough, all religious impressions were gone, and she 
stopped praying. A few months after she came to 
die, and in her closing moments said : " Mother, I 
wish you would bring me that dress that cost $500." 
The mother thought it a very strange request, but she 
brought it to please the dying child. "Now," said the 
daughter, " mother, hang that dress on the foot of my 
bed," and the dress was hung there, on the foot df the 
bed. Then the dying girl got up on one elbow and 
looked at her mother, and then pointed to the dress, 
and said : " Mother, that dress is the price of my 
soul !" O, what a momentous thing it is to be a 
mother ! 

Who are the industrious men in all our occupations 
and professions? Who are they managing the mer- 
chandise of the world, building the walls, tinning the 
roofs, weaving the carpets, making the laws, governing 
the nations, making the earth to quake and heave 
and roar and rattle with the tread of gigantic enter- 
prises? Who are they? For the most part they de- 
scended from industrious mothers, who, in the old 
homestead, used to spin their own yarn, and weave 
their own carpets, and plait their own door-mats, and 
flag their own chairs, and do their own work. The 
stalwart men and the influential women of this day, 
ninety-nine out of a hundred of them came from such 
an illustrious ancestry of hard knuckles and homespun. 

And who are these people in society, light as froth, 
blown every whither of temptation and fashion — the 
peddlers of filthy stories, the dancing jacks of political 



THE MOTHERS HAND. 53 

parties, the scum of society, the tavern-lounger, the 
store-infesting, the men of low wink, and filthy chuckle, 
and brass breast .pins, and rotten associations? For 
the most part they came from mothers idle and dis- 
gusting — the scandal mongers of society, going from 
house to house, attending to everybody's business but 
their own, believing in witches, and ghosts, and horse- 
shoes to keep the devil out of the churn, and by a 
godless life setting their children on the very verge of 
hell. The mothers of Samuel Johnson, and of Alfred 
the Great, and of Isaac Newton, and of St. Augustine, 
and of Richard Cecil, and of President Edwards, for 
the most part were industrious, hard-working mothers. 
D. H. Moody once said: " Many a young man in 
this city wants a mother more than he wants a preacher. 
It has been pleasant work for me to get hold of these 
young men. A business man in Chicago once intro- 
duced me to a young man, and as I spoke to him he 
seemed bowed down; he looked ashamed. My friend 
explained his appearance by telling me that he had just 
come from prison. I took this young man home with me 
and introduced him to my family. My little daughter 
came forward and kissed him. He burst into tears, 
and the child ran away wondering what she had done 
to hurt his feelings. He said, 'That is the first kiss I 
have received since my mother died.' It did not take 
long to reach the heart of that young man. There are 
thousands of young men in this, city who are ready to 
be reached by kindness. Isn't the church guilty before 
God in this matter? Isn't it time to reach out after the 
young men in this city?" 



54 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

No language can express the power and beauty 
and heroism and majesty *>f a mothers love. It 
shrinks not where man cowers, and grows stronger 
where man faints, and over the wastes of worldly for- 
tune it sends the radiance of its quenchless fidelity, 
like a star in heaven. 

It is not enough by our continual care and watch- 
fulness to make our home desirable from parlor to 
kitchen, to dress becomingly, and above all wear a 
bright and cheerful face. These must be done, but do 
not leave the other undone. Let us, if possible, so 
simplify our living that we may have time to devote to 
other subjects than what we may eat, drink and wear. 
It is a battle won for a mother to be able to help a 
son, who looks upon himself as almost a man, over a 
perplexing problem, or a difficult translation. Her 
opinion has weight ever after. We must sacrifice our 
time and our ease, be interested in what interests 
them, and let them feel that they are part of the 
family circle, and really missed when absent from it. 
In our home a half-hour's reading with a talk after is 
found to give real pleasure, and music and games are 
always welcomed. It is a mother's prerogative to do 
all she can for the best interests of her children. 

Every mother should bear in mind that it is easier 
to keep children well than it is to cure them after they 
become ill. A few simple rules faithfully and unflinch- 
ingly observed would banish nine-tenths of the sick- 
nesses among children that too often lead to fatal 
results. 

Give them in the first place plenty of love — ex- 



THE MOTHERS HAND. 55 

pressions of love ! Oftentimes fathers and mothers 
deeply love their children, yet show such little evidence 
of affection that the children are apt to have a forlorn 
feeling that it doesn't exist at all. An occasional word 
of praise, a caress, an expression of sympathy — these 
are as necessary to health and happy child-life as sum- 
mer showers to growing vines. Especially bear this 
in mind — they should never go to bed cold, or hungry, 
or unhappy. 

It is wise for a mother to take time to dress, and 
be fair in her children's eyes ; to read for their sake, to 
learn to talk well, and to live in to-day. The circle the 
mother draws around her is more wholesome for the 
child than the one he has to make for himself, and she 
is responsible for his social surroundings. It is not 
easy to be the child's most interesting companion and 
to make home his strongest magnet, but the mothers 
who have done this have been the mothers of good 
men. 

Let a woman's first sweet page in the book of edu- 
cation be the eyes of her child; let her commune 
with them till the mute, bright language of the eye 
becomes familiar and intelligible to both. At first she 
will be unanswered ; but when the quickened spirit of 
infancy replies to her in a smile, let her receive it as a 
token. It is a light from heaven. It is then that her 
child first acknowledges her maternal character : then 
is she spiritually as well as physically a mother. From 
that bright moment education begins. Oh! what a 
work! How full of beauty ! Instead of shunning, who 
would not seek it? As sympathy strengthens between 



56 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

the child and mother, she will soon discover how infin- 
ite a power she may exercise by means of that sym- 
pathy. A saddened look, a sorrowful tone, will prove 
a correction, which the young thing that loves the light 
of kind looks and the gladness of gay tones will feel 
instantly, and answer to implicitly. 

Maternal instructions and exhortations, however 
indispensable, will always be dependent for their effi- 
cacy, less, upon earnestness or repetition than upon 
the belief which the whole character of the mother has 
impressed upon the child of her sincerity. With the 
pursuits, the objects, whatever they may be, in which 
she manifestly and habitually delights, they will be in- 
sensibly led to associate excellence; with those toward 
which she discovers a genuine distaste and hatred 
they will connect evil ; and this independently of any 
exhortation or of any direct efforts on her part. 

Surely then it behooves every mother who desires 
to mold aright the character of her children — and 
what mother does not ? — to see that she has herself, 
and habitually exhibits before them, the example and 
character upon which maternal influence mainly de- 
pends ; for without this she will, most assuredly, find 
herself deficient in that ascendancy over the minds of 
her children which, in the work of education, is so 
essential to success. 



HOME AND HEALTH, 57 



I7OMB AND F^EALJflH. 

Health is certainly more valuable than money, be- 
cause it is by health that money is procured ; but 
thousands and millions are of small avail to alle- 
viate the protracted tortures of the gout, to repair 
the broken organs of sense, or resuscitate the powers 
of digestion. Poverty is, indeed, an evil from which 
we naturally fly, but let us not run from one enemy to 
another, nor take shelter in the arms of sickness. 

In these days, half our diseases come from the 
neglect of the body in the overwork of the brain. In 
this railway age, the wear and tear of labor and intel- 
lect go on without pause or self-pity. We live longer 
than our forefathers, but we suffer more from a thou- 
sand artificial anxieties and cares. They fatigued 
only the muscles, we exhaust the finer strength of 
the nerves. ♦ 

Health is the soul that animates all enjoyments of 
life, which fade and are tasteless, if not dead, without 
it. A man starves at the best and the greatest tables, 
makes faces at the noblest and most delicate wines, is 
poor and wretched in the midst of the greatest treas- 
ures and fortunes, with common diseases ; strength 
grows decrepit, youth loses all vigor, and beauty all 
charms ; music grows harsh, and conversation dis- 
agreeable ; palaces are prisons, or of equal confine- 
ment; riches are useless, honor and attendance are 
cumbersome, and crowns themselves are a burden ; 



58 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

but if diseases are painful and violent, they equal all 
conditions of life, make no difference between a prince 
and a beggar ; and a fit of the stone or the colic puts 
a king on the rack, and makes him as miserable as he 
can the meanest, the worst and most criminal of his 
subjects. 

Carlyle in his address to students says : " Finally, 
gentlemen, I have one advice to give you, which is 
practically of great importance, though a very humble 
one. In the midst of your zeal and ardor — for such, I 
foresee, will rise high enough in spite of all the coun- 
sels to moderate it that I can give you — remember the 
care of your health. I have no doubt you have among 
you young souls ardently bent to consider life cheap, 
for the purpose of getting forward in what they are 
aiming at ; but you are to consider throughout much 
more than is done at present — and what would have 
been a very great thing for me if I had been able to 
consider it — that health is a thing to be attended to 
continually; that you are to regard it as the very 
highest of all temporal things for you. There is no 
kind of achievement you could make in the world that 
is equal to perfect health. What to it are nuggets and 
millions ? The French financier said : " Why is there 
no sleep to be sold ? " Sleep was not in the market at 
any quotation. 

One of the best foundations you can give your 
children for a life of usefulness and happiness is a 
healthy body. Perfect physical health induces mental 
and moral health and strength. If you would give to 
the world men and women sound in judgment, pure in 



HOME AND HEALTH. 59 

thought, with loving hearts, add to culture wholesome 
food, regular habits, plenty of sleep and outdoor exer- 
cise. An unimpaired digestion is a fortune to any 
child, and is a security for cheerfulness, and usually a 
long, happy and useful life. Therefore, as you value 
such a boon for your child, see that in youth he does 
not lose it all by indulgence in candy, pickles, cake 
and pastry, and " sitting up till mamma's bedtime." 

Ralph Waldo Emerson says: "The best part of 
health is a fine disposition." It is more essential than 
talent. Nothing will supply the want of sunshine to 
peaches; and to make knowledge valuable you must 
have the cheerfulness of wisdom. Whenever you are 
sincerely pleased you are nourished. The joy of the 
spirit indicates its strength. All healthy things are 
sweet-tempered. It is observed that a depression of 
spirits develops the germs of a plague in individuals 
and nations. 

Everybody should plan to have pleasant conversa- 
tion at the table just as they have good food. A little 
story telling, a little reading, it may be of humorous 
things ; anecdotes will often stimulate the joyous ele- 
ment of the mind and cause it to act vigorously. Try 
and avoid going to the table all tired out. Let all 
troublesome topics be avoided. Think and say some- 
thing pleasant. Cultivate mirth, and laugh when any- 
thing witty is said. If possible never eat alone. In- 
vite a friend of whom you are fond and try to have a 
good time. Friendship and friendly intercourse at the 
table whet the appetite and promote the flow of animal 
spirits. 



6<D WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

Nothing is more unsatisfactory than to sit down 
day after day to the same bill of fare. There are 
houses where the mistress seems to have no inventive 
faculty, acquired or innate. Breakfast consists from 
Monday until Saturday of the same fried pork and 
potatoes, or sausage and cakes. Remnants of things 
come on again and again, growing small by degrees, 
till one grows tired of seeing the dish of apple sauce 
or the saucer of prunes, and is tempted to give them 
to the dog or pigs. All this can be remedied by a 
little pains. Manage for your own family as if you 
had guests, and vary the arrangements of your table 
and the articles of your diet. Health will be preserved 
thus, and dyspepsia averted. 

At the railroad speed we live in the United States, 
says the New York Times, the mental strain men are 
put to requires that they should not only have good 
food, but variety is a necessity. It is not very certain 
that it is more expensive to prepare a dinner of five 
or six different kinds of foods than if only three were 
used. It is more troublesome, certainly, but the ad- 
vantage to be derived from such extra pains cannot be 
calculated. 

"I hold," remarks a physician, "that thirty min- 
utes should be spent at each meal, and spent, too, in 
chewing the food a good portion of the time, and not 
in continued putting in and swallowing ; and in pleas- 
ant chat and laugh, instead of the continuance of the 
intense nervous pressure of the office or library. If you 
lay out to spend thirty minutes in this way at your 
meals, you may rest assured you will not eat too much,. 



HOME AND HEALTH. 6 1 

and what you do eat will be in the best condition for 
appropriation to the needs of your system." 

Many feeble men or delicate women of to-day owe 
the helplessness of their lives to the ignorance of san- 
itary laws of the parents of forty or fifty years ago, 
even as fifty years hence our children may have to 
reproach us for that system of overfeeding, and es- 
pecially overdrinking, which many doctors now advo- 
cate for the young generation. I doubt if even the 
calomel powders, jalap and gin, brimstone and treacle 
of our tormented childhood were worse than the meat 
three times a day, the brandy and the daily glass of 
wine, poured into the innocent little stomachs, which 
naturally would keep to the infant's food of bread and 
milk, and almost nothing besides. Certainly, not stim- 
ulants. 

A child naturally cries when it is hurt, and it is 
cruel to try to hush its cries by threats. A thousand 
times better is it to soothe it by stories, by pictures, or 
by providing it with new toys. Says a famous doctor : 
" We have many a time, in our professional experience 
with children, found more benefit to be derived from a 
beautiful or interesting toy than from a dose of physic." 
The greatest humanity that a mother can exhibit, in 
respect to her sick child, is to divert it in all possible 
ways. 

Plenty of glass is exceedingly important in the 
south side of a house. Much of the moral, as well as 
mental and physical, ill that human flesh is heir to, is 
attributable to lack of sunshine, especially in winter, 
in the homes of the people. An extra window or two in 



62 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

the south side of the house would save many a heart- 
ache, as well as headache, by creating cheerfulness. 
It would likewise save many a brain from losing its 
balance. The beautiful in our homes and schools and 
sanctuaries is also the useful. It is the smile upon the 
face of the. hard experiences of the world, the music 
that comes from heaven amid the discords of human 
life. 

A well known American gentleman says: "When 
I was young, I remember, my father, from a conscien- 
tious feeling, I suppose, that he ought to do something 
positive for my mental and moral good and general 
aesthetic cultivation, made me learn Pope's 'Messiah' 
by heart, and a number of other masterpieces of the 
same character. He might just as well have tried to 
feed a sucking baby on roast beef and Scotch ale ! 
Without understanding a word of it, I learned the 
'Messiah' by rote, and I have hated it, and its author, 
too, from that day to this, and I hate them now. So, 
also, I remember well, when I was a boy of from ten to 
fourteen — for I was a considerable devourer of books — 
being incited to read Hume's 'History of England,' and 
Robertson's 'Charles V,' and Gibbon's 'Rome' even, 
and I am not sure I might not add Mitford's ' Greece.' 
I can't now say it was time thrown away; but it was 
almost that. The first thing in trying to stimulate a 
love for reading is to be careful not to create disgust 
by trying to do too much. The great masterpieces 
of human research and eloquence and fancy are to 
boys pure nuisances. They can't understand them ; 
they can't appreciate them if they do. When they 



YOUNG AMERICA. 6$ 

have grown up to them, and are ready for them, they 
will come to them of their own accord. Meanwhile, 
you can't well begin too low down. The intellectual 
like the physical food of children can't well be too sim- 
ple, provided only it is healthy and nourishing." 

l/OUNG flMBI^IGA. 

As the boy begins, so the man will end. The lad 
who speaks with affectation, and minces foreign tongues 
that he does not understand at school, will be a weak 
character all his life ; the boy who cheats his teachers 
into thinking him devout at chapel, will be the man 
who will make religion a trade and bring Christianity 
into contempt; and the boy who wins the highest aver- 
age by stealing his examination papers, will figure 
some day as a tricky politician. The lad who, whether 
rich or poor, dull or clever, looks straight into the eyes 
and keeps his answers inside of the truth, already counts 
friends who will last all his life, and holds a capital 
which will bring him in a surer interest than money. 

Then get to the bottom of things. You see how 
it is already as to that. It was the student who was 
grounded in the grammar who took the Latin prize ; it 
was that slow, steady drudge who practiced firing every 
day last winter that bagged the most game in the 
mountains ; it is the clerk who studies the specialty of the 
house in off hours who is to be promoted. Your brilliant, 
happy-go-lucky, hit-or-miss fellow usually turns out the 



64 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

dead weight of die family by forty-five. Don't take 
anything for granted; get to the bottom of things. 
Neither be a sham yourself, nor be fooled by sham 

The strong, splendid life of President Garfield, and 
his heroic conduct at the time of his intense suffering, 
suggest a lesson for our boys to which, I think, they 
will be glad to have their attention called. One day, 
while thoughts of the patient sufferer filled the mind 
of the entire nation, we read these words which were 
uttered by Major Bundy, of New York, and felt that 
in this fact lay the secret of the noble life and calm, 
steady bravery of the first man of our nation : " The 
Christian in man's soul restrained him every time, for 
he had been pious from his boyhood, and had method- 
ized his influence, and got it down under control." 

The noble manhood of the president is the fruit of 
a well-spent boyhood and youth. It would, no doubt, 
have been blighted had he attempted to bring into his 
youthful life that experience which we call "sowing 
wild oats." 

These are your preparation days, boys. Will you 
strive to lay a sure foundation for a splendid manhood 
by drawing into your life now good and true and 
beautiful qualities? Or must the consequences of a 
season of sowing wild oats run all through your life, 
shutting out its possible nobility, perhaps scorching 
and withering every high and noble aspiration as with 
a moral simoom? 

A distinguished author says: "I resolved when I 
was a child never to use a word which I could not 
pronounce before my mother without offending her." 






YOUNG AMERICA. 65 

His rule and example are worthy of imitation. Boys 
readily learn a class of low, vulgar words and expres- 
sions that are never heard in respectable circles. The 
utmost care on the part of the parents will scarcely 
prevent it. Of course we cannot think of girls being 
exposed to the peril. We cannot imagine a girl using 
words she would not give utterance to before her 
father or mother. Such vulgarity is thought by some 
boys to be "smart;" the "next thing to swearing, and 
yet not so wicked." But it is a habit which leads to 
profanity, and fills the mind with evil thoughts. It 
vulgarizes and degrades the soul, and prepares the 
way for many of the gross and fearful sins which now 
corrupt society. 

Avoid that which you see amiss in others. Follow 
the examples only of the good. Keep your ears open 
to all that is worth hearing, and closed to all that is 
not. An older person's experience is of no value to 
you unless you profit by it. You are not building on 
the future, but on the past and present. Evil com- 
munications corrupt good manners. Nobody wants to 
deal with a double-minded boy. Be industrious; the 
world wants boys who are not afraid of hard and 
steady work. "The empty vessel makes the greatest 
sound." 

If you would overcome difficulties when you be- 
come older, you must become persevering now. Some 
boys inherit golden fortunes, but no boy ever inherited 
a scholarship, a good character or a useful life. If 
you would be capable, cultivate your mind; if you 
would be loved, cultivate your heart. Never excuse 



66 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

a wrong action by saying some one else does the same 
thing; this is no excuse at all. 

Before the recent Franco-Prussian war, Baron 
Stoffel was deputed to report upon the state of opinion 
and morals in Prussia as compared with France. In 
the course of his remarks he says, " Discipline in the 
army depends on the discipline of society and private 
families. The young men in Prussia are trained to 
general obedience, to respect authority, and, above all, 
to do their duty. But how can this discipline exist in 
the French army, when it does not exist in French 
families? Moreover, look beyond the family circle, at 
lyceums, schools, and colleges, — is anything done to 
develop among the children respect for their parents, 
regard for duty, obedience to authority and the law, 
and, above all, belief in God? Nothing, or next to 
nothing! The consequence is, that every year we 
introduce into the army a contingent of young men 
who, for the most part, are entirely devoid of religious 
principles and sound morality, and who, from their 
childhood, have been used to obey no one, to discuss 
everything, and to respect nothing. And yet there 
are people who pretend that all at once we can, as 
soon as they get into the army, inure to discipline 
these undisciplined and unprincipled youths. . These 
people do not suspect that discipline in the army is 
nothing but discipline in private life — that is, sense of 
duty, obedience to appointed superiors, respect for 
the principles of authority and established institutions." 

Boys, don't hang around the corners of the streets! 
If you have anything to do, do it promptly, right on, 



YOUNG AMERICA. 6j 

then go home. Home is the place for boys. About 
the street corners and at the stables they learn to talk 
slang, and they learn to swear, to smoke tobacco, and 
to do many other things which they ought not to do. 
Do your business, then go home. If your business is 
play, play and make a business of it. I like to see 
boys play good, earnest, healthy games. If I were the 
town, I would give the boys a good spacious play- 
ground. It should have a plenty of soft green grass, 
and trees, and fountains, and broad space to run and 
jump and to play suitable plays. J would make it as 
pleasant, as lovely as it could be, and I would give it 
to the boys to play in ; and when the plays were ended 
I would tell them to go home. For when boys hang 
around the street corners and the stables they get 
slouchy and listless. Of all things I dislike a listless 
boy or girl. I would have a hundred boys like a hun- 
dred yachts, with every spar straight and every rope 
taut, the decks and sides clean, the rigging all in order, 
and everything ready to slip the cable and fly before 
the wind when the word comes to go. But this can- 
not be if you lounge about the streets, and loaf about 
the corners, and idle away your time at the stables and 
the saloons. 

" You must remember it isn't only laying hold of a 
rope — you must go on pulling. It is the mistake you 
lads make that have got nothing either in your brains 
or your pockets, to think you've got a better start in 
the world if you stick yourself in a place where you 
can keep your coats clean and be taken for a gentle- 
man. That wasn't the way I started, young man. 



68 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

When I was sixteen my jacket smelled of tar, and I 
wasn't afraid of handling cheeses. That's the reason 
I can wear good broadcloth now." 

The boy who spends an hour eacn evening loung- 
ing idly on the street corners, wastes in a year three 
hundred and sixty-five precious hours, which if applied 
to study would familiarize him with the rudiments of 
almost any science. If in addition to wasting an hour 
each evening he spends ten cents for a cigar, which is 
usually the case, the amount thus worse than wasted 
would pay for ten of the leading periodicals of the 
country. Boys, think of these things. Think of how 
much money you are wasting, and for what. The 
gratification afforded by the lounge on the corner, or 
the cigar, is not only temporary but positively hurtful. 
You cannot indulge in them without seriously injuring 
yourselves. You acquire idle and wasteful habits 
which will cling to you with each succeeding year and 
grow on you for life. 

Physicians are well agreed that the use of tobacco 
by growing boys is full of danger. Recent investiga- 
tions, especially in France, have demonstrated that a 
whole train of nervous diseases are to be traced to 
this practice. If you want to stop growing, if you 
want to have a set of nerves that are like those of the 
invalid old lady, if you wish to look sallow and puny, 
I do not know any better way than to smoke tobacco. 
It will make a drain on your nervous system which will 
be sure to tell after awhile. Let us hope that if a 
thousand boys read this some of them will be saved 
from forming a filthy habit which most men regret. 



YOUNG AMERICA. 69 

Says Dr. Henson, "I believe in a boy who has some- 
thing of the man in him, and I believe in the man who has 
something of the boy in him." A conservative young 
man has wound up his life before it was unreeled. We 
expect old men to be conservative, but when a nation's 
young men are so, its funeral bell is already rung. 

Dr. Beard states that from an analysis of the lives 
of a thousand representative men in all the great 
branches of the human family, he made the discovery 
that the golden decade was between forty and fifty; 
the brazen between twenty and thirty ; the iron be- 
tween fifty and sixty. The superiority of youth and 
middle life over old age in original work appears all 
the greater when we consider the fact that all the po- 
sitions of honor and prestige* — professorships and 
public stations — are in the hands of the old. Reputa- 
tion, like money and position, is mainly confined to the 
old. Men are not widely known until long after they 
have done the work that give them their fame. Por- 
traits of great men are delusions; statues are false! 
They are taken when men have become famous, which, 
on the average, is at least twenty-five years after they 
did the work which gave them their fame. Original 
work requires enthusiasm. If all the original work 
done by men under forty-five was annihilated, they 
would be reduced to barbarism. Men are at their 
best at that time when enthusiasm and experience are 
evenly balanced. This period, on the average, is 
from thirty-eight to forty. After this the law is that 
experience increases, but enthusiasm decreases. Of 
course there are exceptions. 



70 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 



(Choice of Occupation. 

Various are the reasons why the greater part of 
mankind cannot apply themselves to arts or letters. 
Particular studies are only suited to the capacities of 
particular persons. Some are incapable of applying 
to them from the delicacy of their sex, some from the 
unsteadiness of youth, and others from the imbecility 
of age. Many are precluded by the narrowness of 
their education, and many by the straitness of their 
fortune. The wisdom of God is wonderfully mani- 
fested in this happy and well ordered diversity in the 
powers and properties of his creatures, since, by thus 
admirably suiting the agent to the action, the whole 
scheme of human affairs is carried on with the most 
agreeing and consistent economy ; and no chasm is 
left for want of an object to fill it, exactly suited to its 
nature. 

In choosing a vocation in life do not depend too 
much upon your tastes. It may be possible that your 
tastes are not what they should be, and that effort on 
your part is needed to change them somewhat. Duty 
and inclination do not always run parallel. 

There is nothing should be taught sooner than that 
this is a working world, and that labor, physical or men- 
tal, is a necessity for the whole progeny of the first tiller 
of the ground and sewer of the fig-leaves. Mothers try 
to spare their daughters the necessity of labor (by 
taking the burden on themselves) much more than 



CHOICE OF OCCUPATION. 7 1 

fathers do their sons. In fact, my experience is that 
men, as a rule, are lazier than women. The boys are 
made to work and earn for their fathers before the 
mothers think that the girls can do more than to hem 
their ruffles or trim their hats. Mothers take pride in 
their daughters' soft hands and round cheeks when 
their own hands have become hardened and their own 
cheeks hollow. The danger of this is that the soft 
hands and smooth faces become the first thought of 
the daughters, and a selfish and idle life is the result. 
Daughters, you have but one mother ; care for her 
and spare her. " No love like mother's love," unself- 
ish, thoughtful, unreasoning often for herself, but al- 
ways taking thought for " the children." An idle life 
is always a selfish one. No heart is so naturally good 
as to escape the demoralizing effects of days without 
labor, that bring nights without weariness. 

A lad once stepped into our office in search of a 
situation. He was asked : 

" Are you not now employed?" 

"Yes, sir." 

" Then why ,do you wish to change ? " 

" Oh, I want an easier place." 

We had not the place for him. No one wants a 
boy or a man who is seeking an easy place ; yet just 
here is the difficulty with thousands. 

Will the boys let us advise them ? Go in for the 
hard places ; bend yourself to the task of showing how 
much you can do. Make yourself serviceable to your 
employer at whatever cost of personal ease, and when 
the easy places are to be had they will be yours. Life 



72 



WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 



is toilsome at best to most of us, but the easy places 
are at the end, not at the beginning, of life's course. 
They are to be won, not accepted. 

The day will come — and may I do something to 
help it hither — when the youth of our country will rec- 
ognize that, taken in itself, it is a more manly, and 
therefore, in the old, true sense, a more gentle thing 
to follow a good handicraft, if it makes the hands 
black as coal, than to spend the day in keeping 
books and making up accounts, though therein the 
hands remain white. Not but that from a higher point 
of view still, all work set by God and done divinely is 
of equal honor; but where there is a choice I would 
gladly see a boy of mine choose rather to be a black- 
smith, or a watchmaker, or a bookbinder, than a clerk. 
Production — making — is a higher thing in the scale of 
reality than mere transmission, such as buying and 
selling. It is, besides, easier to do honest work than 
to buy and sell honestly. 

The preference of farming over that of a city life 
should be made by all whose health or force of will 
power is not very strong. A weak man, a man who 
loves to take the world easy, has no business in the 
city, if he expects to make of his life a success. You 
must needs gird up your soul to a battle that will wear 
you down and out, and bring gray hairs prematurely, 
and turn your gentle nature into one of harshness, 
and make life a constant worry to you, if you resolve 
to attain success in a city life. 

It is true there are some city people who succeed 
in their business and yet seem to retain the freshness 



CHOICE OF OCCUPATION. 73 

of youth, the sparkling eye, and the elastic step. But 
these are the exceptions and not the rule. There are 
thousands of men, and women too, in this broad land 
of ours, who have made failures of their city work, 
whether it was a profession they chose or a trade or 
merchandise, and perhaps wrecked their own and their 
friends' fortunes, and then retired to some country 
village or a farm, to make a livelihood. There are 
other thousands who have wrecked their health, and 
now lead miserable lives, although they may have 
made money in the city. Many of these resort to the 
country and work upon the farm to regain health, or 
make life tolerable. 

There is no class of men that need more help to- 
day than business men. Their perplexities are in- 
numerable, their temptations are infinite. These men 
are hurled into competition with those who have more 
means and less conscience. Opportunities of accumu- 
lation, if neglected for an hour, are snatched up by 
rivals. From January to December is one continuous 
struggle. The night brings no rest to limbs that toss 
with restlessness and a brain that will not stop think- 
ing. The Sabbath cannot thoroughly dam back the 
tide of anxiety, for the wave of worldliness dashes 
clear over the churches, and leaves its foam on Bibles 
and psalm books and family altars. Worried and 
teased and disappointed and rasped, he bears in his 
countenance the shock of the conflict. Men who live 
by the culture of the soil cannot appreciate this wear 
and tear of body and mind to which the merchant and 
professional man are subjected, when their very liveli- 



74 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

hood and business honor seem at the mercy of a sea in 
which thousands are sinking, and across which multi- 
tudes of others, with bending mast and slit sail, are 
bearing up against great stress of weather. 

The world has been compared by some to a board 
covered-with holes of many various shapes, and pegs 
fitted for each, but which are scattered about at ran- 
dom, so that it is a mere chance whether a peg falls 
into the hole that fits it. There are- numbers of men 
who would never attain any extraordinary eminence in 
anything, who are yet so constituted as to make a very 
respectable figure in the department that is suited for 
them, and to fall below mediocrity in a different one. 

There is many a Christian student now in our col- 
leges who, if he will decide to enter the "high calling" 
of a laborer for souls, will keep a hundred thanksgiv- 
ing days for having chosen the better part. The more 
a minister loves his work the more he enjoys it. We 
see the sad and depraved sides of human nature ; but 
we also see its best and brightest sides ; and we are 
kept in contact with the most rich and soul-elevating 
truths in the universe. Yes ; we are brought into the 
daily fellowship of the Divine Teacher, the Elder 
Brother, the Holy Comforter. Jesus comes to us in 
our studies. His countenance shines on our Bibles. 
He glorifies by his smile the humblest cabin in which 
a frontier missionary is preparing his message of heav- 
enly love. To save a soul is a luxury that Gabriel 
might covet. "Your heaven is two heavens to me," 
said Rutherford to his spiritual children whom he had 
led to the Saviour. 



APPEARANCES. • ^ 



flPPEAI^ANGES. 

Nothing is more common than to mistake the sign 
for the thing itself; nor is any practice more frequent 
than that of endeavoring to acquire the exterior mark, 
without once thinking to labor after the interior grace. 
Surely this is beginning at the wrong end, like attack- 
ing the symptom and neglecting the disease. To reg- 
ulate the features while the soul is in tumults, or to 
command the voice while the passions are without 
restraint, is as idle as throwing odors into a stream 
when the source is polluted. 

The sapient king who knew better than any man 
the nature and the power of beauty, has assured 
us that the temper of the mind has a strong influence 
upon the features; "wisdom maketh the face to shine," 
says that exquisite judge ; and surely no part of wis- 
dom is more likely to produce this amiable effect than 
a placid serenity of soul. 

Foolish men mistake transitory resemblances for 
eternal facts, and go astray more and more. We 
should never trust to appearances against our better 
judgment. Better be guided by experienced and 
disinterested advisers when we have only outward 
appearances on which to form our judgment. The 
notoriety of our work is of no consequence. The ear- 
nestness and accuracy with which we strike our blow 
is all important ; but it matters nothing how far it 
echoes. 



J 6 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

What waste, what misery, what bankruptcy, come 
from all this ambition to dazzle others with the glare 
of apparent worldly success, we need not describe, 
The mischievous results show themselves in a thou- 
sand ways — in the rank frauds committed by men who 
dare to be dishonest, but do not dare to seem poor ; 
and in the desperate dashes at fortune, in which the 
pity is not so much for those who fail, as for the hun- 
dreds of innocent families who are so often involved 
in their ruin. 

What is a good appearance ? It is not being pomp- 
ous and starchy; for proud looks lose hearts, and gen- 
tle words win them. It is not wearing fine clothes ; for 
such dressing tells the world that the outside is the 
better part of the man. You cannot judge a horse by 
his harness; but a modest, gentlemanly appearance, 
in which the dress is such as no one could comment 
upon, is the right and most desirable thing. Be neat 
and tidy in your personal appearance. There is no 
excuse for carelessness in these matters in a country 
where water is plenty and free. 

A St. Louis paper tells a touching story of school 
life. In one of the public schools, many of the children 
who came from a distance were accustomed to bring a 
lunch, and thus save the long walk home for dinner.. 
They generally ate it together, and had a merry time. 

Among those who stopped, one of the teachers 
noticed a little girl who never brought any lunch, but 
who looked wistfully at her playmates as they were 
eating their noon meal. But one day the little girl 
brought her bundle also, wrapped in paper. At noon 



APPEARANCES. 77 

she did not go with the others, but remained at her 
desk, as if preferring to eat alone. 

The teacher, thinking her unsociable, advised her 
to go to the lunch-room with her playmates, and walked 
toward the desk to take the bundle. But the little 
girl, bursting into sobs, said, 

" Don't touch it, teacher; and O teacher, don't tell, 
please. It's only blocks." 

The poor girl had no dinner to bring, but wished 
to keep up "appearances," so as not to seem unlike 
her school-mates. And she was one of the best schol- 
ars in the school. She was very dear to the teacher's 
heart after that incident. 

A traveler once asserted to a Syrian shepherd that 
the sheep knew the dress of their master, not his 
voice. The shepherd, on the other hand, asserted 
it was the voice they knew. To settle the point he and 
the traveler changed dresses and went among the 
sheep. The traveler, in the shepherd's dress, called 
on the sheep and tried to lead them; but "they knew 
not his voice," and never moved. On the other hand, 
they ran at once at the call of their owner, though dis- 
guised in the traveler's dress. 

But with human beings the case is different, and I 
more and more see this, that we judge men's abilities 
less from what they say or do, than from what they 
look. 'Tis the man's face that gives him weight. His 
doings help, but not more than his brow. It is the 
appearances that fill the scene; and we pause not to 
ask of what realities they are the proxies. When the 
actor of Athens moved all hearts as he clasped the 



yS WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

burial urn, and burst into broken sobs, how few then 
knew that it held the ashes of his son. 

Each under his borrowed guise, the actor belongs 
to himself. He has put on a mask ; beneath it his real 
face still exists ; he has thrown himself into a foreign in- 
dividuality, which in some sense forms a shelter to the 
integrity of his own character; he may indeed wear 
festive attire, but his mourning is beneath it; he may 
smile, divert, act, his soul is still his own ; his inner life 
is undisturbed; no indiscreet question will lift the veil, 
no coarse hand will burst open the gates of the 
sanctuary. 

Our best conjectures as to the true spring of 
actions are very uncertain; the actions themselves are 
all we must pretend to know from history. That 
Caesar was murdered by twenty-four conspirators I 
doubt not; but I very much doubt whether their love 
of liberty was the sole cause. 

It is common to talk of the humble poor man, and 
the proud rich man. Let not these ideas be insepar- 
ably blended together. There is many a man who 
sits down to a meal of bread and milk on a wooden 
table, whose heart is as proud as the proudest whose 
birth is royal. There is many a one whose voice is 
heard in the public meeting, loudly descanting on legal 
tyranny and aristocratic insolence, who in his own 
narrow circle is as much a tyrant as any oppressor who 
ever disgraced the throne. And there is many a man 
who sits down to daily pomp, to whom gold and silver 
are but as brass and tin, and who bears in the midst 
of it all a meek, simple spirit, and a "heart refrained 



WORK OR PLAY. 79 

as a weaned child;" many a man who lives surrounded 
with homage, and hearing the applause and flattery of 
men perpetually, on whose heart these things fall flat 
and dead, without raising one single emotion of flat- 
tered vanity. 

S5of^ 01^ ©LAY. 

Many seem to think it a great disgrace to labor, 
and are ashamed to be seen doing any kind of work. 
How unreasonable ! How ignorant ! How silly ! Some 
think that the Creator, in wrath, condemned us to work, 
and that it is a curse upon us. If it is a curse, it is a 
most blessed curse. The laboring man or woman 
keenly enjoys mealtime, and can sleep soundly and 
sweetly. The idle have to force the best of food, and 
sleep is disturbed by restlessness or sleeplessness. 
The laboring man is strong and healthy. The idle 
are weak and enervated. 

The constant laborer seldom has any difficulties 
with his neighborSj for he has no time. The most, no- 
torious robbers and cut-throats are idlers. Of the dif- 
ficulties that occur, not one in a million is between 
constant laboring men — especially if they are thor- 
oughly sober men. In every paper we read of mur- 
der, rape, theft, burglary and incendiarism, and they 
are almost always committed by vagabond idlers. 
Many are slain in midnight revels while the laborer is 
reposing. Many idlers gamble away all their proper- 
ty and are left lower than the beasts of the field. The 



SO WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

laborer attends to his own business ; but the idler tat- 
tles, lies, steals, drinks, gambles, murders, and does all 
wicked acts. 

God, our Maker, never intended for anyone to be 
idle. From the king, on his throne to the beggar in 
his hovel, all should be required to work at something. 
Can any man find a lazy, idle Christian ? No. Why 
not ? Because there are none. Labor has kept many 
out of the grave for years. Labor and temperance 
are the two wings with which a man or woman flies to 
old age. Then let none be idle, none indolent, none 
careless of his time ; but industrious, sober and 
thoughtful. 

Work is one of the sublimest prayers. This doing 
the best one can is the keynote of all that we can do. 
It was the effort to do' his best for his Master's sake 
that gave Leonardo da Vinci the inspiration and en- 
thusiasm to paint "The Last Supper," which has 
made his name immortal ; so that no tourist can pass 
through Milan without getting a glance at the sublime 
conception of the artist's pencil and brush. And thus 
it should be with the child of God. The spirit of his 
Master should inspire him to throw his life without re- 
serve into his work and do his best. 

Don't loiter, boys and girls. When you know what 
you ought to do, then go about it promptly ; and work 
at it diligently, and finish it. Work first, and rest af- 
terward. Never dawdle. Is there a garden to be 
weeded, corn to be hoed, hay to be raked, coal to be 
brought up, an errand to be done, a lesson to be 
learned ? make that the first thing, and, if possible, the 



WORK OR PLAY. 8 1 

only thing until it is finished. Your comfort and your 
success in life depend very much upon the habits you 
form in this matter. 

You find some people who are always saying they 
have so much to do, and yet they seem to accomplish 
very little. They are not comfortable and they are 
not successful. Perhaps they have a letter to write : 
and they worry over it every day for a week, exhaust- 
ing as much strength in this useless worry and " dread 
to go about it" each day as another would in writing 
and posting half a dozen letters. 

The successful men — railroad presidents, bankers, 
manufacturers, merchants, farmers — are men who 
have what we call executive ability or " dispatch." It 
is the power of forming an accurate judgment quickly, 
doing a thing, or giving order for it, at once, and then 
dismissing it from the mind, so that the next thing may 
be taken up and dispatched. The hour's duties are 
done in the sixty minutes, the day's duties within busi- 
ness hours ; and then the man may read, ride, talk, 
sleep, rest, with a mind free from care. If the boys 
and girls manage their work thus, then they will enjoy 
their play. 

Work is the true philosopher's stone. But the 
work must be undertaken in the right spirit, and must 
be carried forward in the right way, to turn base met- 
als to shining gold at last. 

A humorous writer offers the following: "And 
then remember, my son, you have to work. Whether 
you handle a pick or a pen, a wheelbarrow or a set of 
books, digging, ditching, or editing a newspaper, ring- 



82 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

ing an auction bell or writing funny things, you must 
work. If you look around you, you will see that the 
men who are the most able are the men who work the 
hardest. Don't be afraid of killing yourself with over- 
work, son. It is beyond your power to do that. Men 
cannot work so hard as that on the sunny side of 
thirty. They die sometimes, but it's because they quit 
work at six p. m., and don't go home until two a. m. 
It's the interval that kills, my son. The work gives 
you an appetite for your meals, it lends solidity to 
your slumber, it gives you a perfect and graceful ap- 
preciation of a holiday. 

"There are young men who do not work, my son; 
young men who can make a living by sucking the end 
of a cane, whose entire mental development is sufficient 
to tell them which side of a postage stamp to lick; 
young men who can tie a necktie in eleven different 
knots and never lay a wrinkle in it; who can spend 
more money in a day than you can earn in a month, 
but who will go to the sheriff's office to buy a postal 
card, and apply at the office of the street commissioner 
for a marriage license. But the world is not proud of 
them, son. It does not know their name, even. No- 
body likes them, nobody hates them; the great busy 
world doesn't even know they are there. Things will 
go on just as well without them. So find out what 
you want to be, and do this. Take off your coat and 
make a dust in the world. The busier you are the less 
mischief you will be apt to get into, and the sweeter will 
be your sleep, the brighter and happier your holidays, 
and the better satisfied will the world be with you." 



WORK OR PLAY. 83 

The mechanical boy should have a shop of his own. 
Let it be the attic, or an unused room, or a place in the 
barn or wood-shed. Give him a place, and tools. Let 
him have a good pocket-knife, a gimlet, chisels, gouges, 
planes, cutting nippers, a foot rule, saws, and materials 
to work. Let the boy have a chance. If he is a 
mechanic it will come out, and he will do himself credit. 
If he fails, he is to follow some calling that does not 
demand mechanical skill: 

Hannah Moore says: "Idleness among children, 
as among men, is the root of all evil, and leads to no 
other evil more certain than ill temper." 

Boys and girls, be careful to find something that 
will do you or some one else good to do. 

Good healthful play will come under this rule, and 
is much more beneficial every way than having nothing 
to do, and getting into mischief. 

Such are the vicissitudes of the world through all 
its parts that day and night, labor and rest, hurry and 
retirement, endear each other; such are the changes 
that keep the mind in action. We desire, we pursue, 
we obtain, we are satiated; we desire something else L 
and begin a new pursuit. 

Bear in mind that whatever the work is you have 
to do, that work is given you by God. Are you a shop- 
man? Well, behind your counter sell your goods and 
do your work as if it were God's work. Are you a 
lawyer? Well, work on in love to the great Law- 
giver, defend the right and defeat the wrong, remem- 
bering that your calling is divine. Are you a laborer, 
a ploughman, a weaver? Well, steadily use your 



84 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

shovel, merrily drive your horses to the field, cheerily 
make your shuttle fly till the pattern stands out before 
you in the web, remembering that you are engaged in 
a heaven-appointed task, and that you have a Master 
in heaven. If it were so, would not all trickery disap- 
pear from trade, all quirks and quibbles from the law, 
all eye-service, all unfaithfulness, all discontent from 
the ranks of the laboring population. Depend upon 
it, we in general take too low a view of our calling. 
We look upon our labor as merely drudgery. Well, 
it may be so, but it is a divine drudgery. While we 
work we are doing good; and everything that is good 
is God-like. Such a conception as this ennobles the 
meanest toil, and raises the poorest mechanic, the 
humblest tiller of the soil, into a servant of Almighty 
God. 

A certain degree of tension is indispensable to the 
easy and healthful discharge of mental functions. Like 
the national instrument of Scotland, the mind drones 
wofully and will discourse most dolorous music, unless 
an expansive and resilient force within supplies the 
basis of quickly responsive action. No good, great 
or enduring work can be safely accomplished by brain- 
force without a reserve of strength sufficient to give 
buoyancy to the exercise, and, if I may say so, rhythm to 
the operations of the mind. Working at high-pressure 
may be bad, but working at low-pressure is incompar- 
ably worse. As a matter of experience, a sense of 
weariness commonly precedes collapse from "over- 
work;" not mere bodily or nervous fatigue, but a more 
or less conscious distaste for the business in hand, or 



WORK OR PLAY. 85 

perhaps for some other subject of thought or anxiety 
which obtrudes itself. It is the offensive or irritating 
burden that breaks the back. Thoroughly agreeable 
employment, however engrossing, stimulates the re- 
cuperative faculty while it taxes the strength, and the 
supply of nerve-force seldom falls short of the demand. 
When a feeling of disgust or weariness is not experi- 
enced, this may be because the compelling sense of 
duty has crushed self out of thought. Nevertheless, 
if the will is not pleasurably excited, if it rules like a 
martinet without affection or interest, there is no nerve, 
and, like a complex piece of machinery working with 
friction and heated bearings, the mind wears itself 
away and a breakdown ensues. 

Do your work earnestly, systematically, persever- 
ingly, patiently, meekly, studiously, cheerfully, prayer- 
fully. Attempt great things for God ; expect great 
things from God ; leave results with God. 

For a long and successful career one should adapt 
himself to his new conditions. He cannot eat precisely 
the measure or the kind of food to-day that he did 
twenty years ago. We know a man who becomes 
nervous, agitated, and easily fatigued by studying in 
the afternoon. In early years this was not the case. 
It has come upon him latterly. But he has no difficulty 
with his work in the morning. It is a very plain case. 
He ought to adapt his studies to the conditions of his 
mind and body, and do his work when he can do it 
best. We knew a merchant who in early life was hard- 
working, and when about fifty found his business could 
no longer be done by him. He used every effort to 



&6 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

continue his labors, but he was unable to do it. He 
came to the conclusion that he was breaking down, and 
was about to retire from business altogether. But the 
thought came to him like an inspiration, that he might take 
up some new form of business of less burden to him. 
He was about a year in making the transition, and 
found that he was abundantly able for .his new 
departure. He built up, in a more quiet way, his new 
business, and reached a vigorous and beautiful old age, 
without the tension of his earlier years, and died at last 
with his easy harness on. We fully believe that if 
many a man in business, instead of retiring from it. 
would rid himself of the strain, and continue moderate 
work, he would save himself from permature imbecility, 
and do work for which he is fitted until the end of his 
days. Abrupt cessation from labor is enough to break 
down the strongest mind. The elder Disraeli's in- 
quiries into the habits of authorship reveal one fact 
very fully, that literary men have found their real re- 
cuperation and ease in labor, until the eighties are 
reached, by a wise adaptation to their needs of mind 
and body. Sismondi, the prolific Italian historian, 
found recuperation in change from one absorbing study 
to one less so. The same thing was the secret of the 
marvelous career of Alexander von Humboldt. The 
human mind is a subtle instrument, and the body not 
less capricious; and for the long and steady pull of a 
successful career we need to find out early what we 
need. For the body and the mind are our beasts of 
burden, and victory depends on how we drive them 
along the highway of life. 



GOOD BREEDING. 8/ 



Good Breeding. 

The more a man sees of the world, and the more 
he mingles with others, the smaller space is he inclined 
to claim for himself among- his fellows. He sees that 
in the pushing struggle of life, other people's rights 
must be considered ; and he must not take more 
ground than just enough to stand on. This is very 
marked in all crowds, and in all public places and con- 
veyances. The man or woman who is best versed in 
society makes smallest demands, and occupies least 
space. The persons who take more room than be- 
longs to them are those who have been least in com- 
pany, least accustomed to adapt themselves to the 
needs of those about them. If you want to be thought 
well-bred, traveled, cosmopolitan, keep in your elbows 
in a crowd, and sit close in a street-car. If you want 
to be thought boorish and uncultivated, and to be re- 
cognized as one who was never much in good 
company, push both sides of you, as well as in front 
and rear, in a crowd, and spread yourself out in a car, 
or in a public hall. It is by such indications as these 
that we see that the demands of Christian regard for 
the rights and feelings of others secure the best results 
of good breeding. To be a well-rounded Christian 
man or woman includes the highest graces of true gen- 
tility. 

Good manners are to a person what perfume is to 
a flower; something individual and charming; some- 



SS WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

thing which is necessary to make even beauty lovely. 
Their very essence is sympathy. I do not think a true 
Christian could be anything but well-bred, though 
there are plenty of gruff and uncivil members of 
churches. But no one who has taken the gospel of 
Christ into his heart, who loves his neighbor as himself 
and blesses even his enemy, can be anything but truly 
polite, however he might, through lack of social expe- 
rience, offend against some of the canons of etiquette. 
To go into society with the distinct object of making 
other people happy is to ensure that you will, be not 
only at ease, but well-bred. 

Some men move through life as a band of music 
moves down the street, flinging out pleasure on every 
side through the air to every one, far and near, that 
can listen. Some men fill the air with their presence and 
sweetness, as orchards in October days fill the air with 
the perfume of ripe fruit. Some women cling to their 
own houses, like the honeysuckle over the door, yet, 
like it, sweeten all the region with the subtile fragrance 
of their goodness. There are trees of righteousness 
which are ever dropping precious fruit around them. 
There are lives that shine like star-beams, or charm 
the heart like songs sung upon a holy day. How 
great a bounty and blessing it is to hold the royal gifts 
of the soul so that they shall be music to some and 
fragrance to others, and life to all ! It would be no un- 
worthy thing to live for to make the power which we 
have within us the breath of other men's joy ; to scat- 
ter sunshine where only clouds and shadows reign; to 
fill the atmosphere where earth's weary toilers must 



GOOD BREEDING. 89 

stand with a brightness which they cannot create for 
themselves, and which they long for, enjoy and appre- 
ciate. 

The coin of courtesy is current in every land and 
under every flag, and is frequently more valuable than 
gold. However, courtesy is the circulating medium 
between strangers as compliments pass between ac- 
quaintances, but when we deal with friends and lovers 
we should pour out with princely hand the sovereign 
gold of truth, of candor and of confidence. 

Politeness is to goodness what words are to 
thought. It tells not only on the manners, but on the 
mind and heart ; it renders the feelings, the opinions, 
the words moderate and gentle. 

True politeness is perfect ease and freedom. It 
simply consists in treating others as you would love to 
be treated. 

Do not carry on a conversation with another in 
company about matters which the general company 
knows nothing of. It is almost as impolite as to whis- 
per. 

Never hold any one by the button or the hand in 
order to be heard out ; for, if people are unwilling to 
hear you, you had better hold your tongue than them. 

Don't forget to say " good morning." Say it to 
your parents, your brothers and sisters, your school- 
mates, your teachers — and say it cheerfully and with a 
smile; it will do you good, and will do your friends 
good. 

There's a kind of inspiration in every "good morn- 
ing," heartily spoken, that helps to make hope fresher 



90 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

and work lighter. It seems really to make the morn- 
ing good, and to be a prophecy of a good day to come 
after it. And if this be true of the "good morning," 
it is so of all kind, heartsome greetings ; they cheer 
the discouraged, rest the tired one, and somehow make 
the wheels of life run more smoothly. 

A low voice and soft address are the common in- 
dications of a well-bred woman, and should be the 
natural effects of a meek and quiet spirit ; the whole 
outward expression should be in perfect harmony with 
a true nobility of character that will never torture its 
possessor with the constant fear of being thrown off 
her guard. She must ever be what she seems, and 
then there is no danger of humiliating accidents. That 
is true cultivation which gives us sympathy with every 
form of human life and enables us to work most suc- 
cessfully for its advancement. Refinement that carries 
us away from our fellowmen is not God's refinement. 

Wherever else you fail to behave well, don't let it 
be at the table. Have your hair brushed and your 
hands bright and clean, and best of all, have every 
semblance of a scowl from off your face. Mind your 
manners, mind- your tempers, and mind your tongue. 
It is only for a few moments that you are with the 
family, and it is an easy thing to make or mar the 
family comfort ; and a little mar sometimes becomes a 
great one before its consequences are done with. 
Fold your napkin carefully, and set your chair back 
quietly. If there is a baby in the house, do not leave 
it screaming from an interrupted nap, just because 
you had to come in to dinner. Remember there are 



GOOD BREEDING. 9 1 

other people in the world beside yourself, and do not 
take up more room than belongs to you. It is selfish 
to appropriate too much of the household's comfort. 
Remember the golden rule when at the table. 

Perhaps one reason why boys and girls do not feel 
so comfortable and so at ease as they might on special 
occasions at the table, is because they do not take 
pains to be perfectly polite when there is no one pres- 
ent but the ordinary home folks. In the first place we 
owe it to ourselves always to look very neat and nice 
at our own tables. Nobody should presume to sit 
down to a meal without making a proper toilet before- 
hand. Boys ought to be careful that their hair is 
brushed, their hands and faces clean, their nails free 
from stain and soil, their collars and ties in order be- 
fore they approach the table. A very few moments 
spent in this preparation will freshen them up and 
give them the outward appearance of little gentlemen. 
I hope girls do not need to be cautioned thus. 

Good manners are not learned from arbitrary 
teaching so much as acquired from habit. They grow 
upon us by use. We must be courteous, agreeable, 
civil, kind, gentlemanly and womanly at home, and 
then it will soon become a kind of second nature to 
be so everywhere. A coarse, rough nature at home 
begets a habit of roughness which we cannot lay off, 
if we try, when we go among strangers. The most 
agreeable people we have ever met in company are 
those who are perfectly agreeable at home. Home is 
the school for all the best things, especially good man- 
ners. Cultivate kindness and good nature at home 



92 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

and it will come readily at other times ; if your home 
life is fretful and fault-finding it is easily known, where- 
ever you are. 

Many a girl is careless as to how much money a 
young man spends for her. Three and five dollars 
for a horse and carriage he can poorly afford, perhaps, 
yet she will go with him week after week, with no par- 
ticular interest in him, unmindful, apparently, whether 
he earns the money or takes it from his employer's 
drawer. He makes her expensive presents. He 
takes her to a concert, in going to which, usually, save 
for her pride and his gallantry, a horse-car ride for 
ten cents would be far wiser than a carriage ride for 
several dollars. A young man respects a young 
woman all the more who is careful of the way in which 
he spends his money, and will not permit too much to 
be used for her. A thoughtful and well-bred girl will 
be wise about these matters. 

We close this subject by quoting the sensible and 
beautiful words of Hannah More: 

" How easily and effectually may a well-bred woman 
promote the most useful and elegant conversation, al- 
most without speaking a word! for the modes of speech 
are scarcely more variable than the modes of silence. 
The silence of listless ignorance and the silence of 
sparkling intelligence are perhaps as separately 
marked and as distinctly expressed as the same feel- 
ings could have been by the most unequivocal language. 
A woman in a company where she has the least influ- 
ence, may promote any subject by a profound and 
invariable attention, which shows that she is pleased 



THINK AND ACT. 93 

with it, and by an illuminated countenance, which 
proves that she understands it. This obliging atten- 
tion is the most flattering encouragement in the world 
to men of sense and letters to continue any topic of in- 
struction or entertainment they may happen to be en- 
gaged in; it owed its introduction, perhaps, to accident, 
the best introduction in the world for a subject of ingen- 
uity, which, though it could not have been formally pro- 
posed without pedantry, may be continued with ease and 
good humor; but which may be frequently and effect- 
ually stopped by the listlessness, inattention, or whis- 
pering of silly girls, whose weariness betrays their 
ignorance, and whose impatience exposes their ill 
breeding. A polite man, however deeply interested 
in the subject on which he is conversing, catches at the 
slightest hint to have done ; a look is sufficient intima- 
tion ; and if a pretty simpleton who sits near him seems 
distrait, he puts an end to his remarks, to the great 
regret of the reasonable part of the company." 



<5hini^ and ^Igct. 

He who forms a deeply set habit of thinking and 
doing right, moves with the current of a mighty tide 
of life, and has good hope, through grace, of making a 
happy landing at last. No one who adequately com- 
prehends life can be otherwise than in downright, storm- 
ful earnestness about it. 

The Christian must think, that he may do. If the 



94 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

seed of his right thinking do not bring forth the fruit 
of action after its kind, it is of little worth. Said 
Savonarola, " One only knows what he practices." 
They asked Joan of Arc what virtue she supposed there 
was in her white standard, wishing to accuse her of 
magic. "I said to it," she answered, "go boldly 
among the English, and then I followed it myself." So, 
lifting the standard of white thoughts, must the Chris- 
tian himself follow in white action. Thinking and 
doing, not thinking alone, nor doing alone, but both 
together, must go to make the genuine Christian life. 

There is a world of work to be done in this our day 
— work that will stand glorious in the sight of God, 
and angels, and the millions of the redeemed, when the 
heavens have passed away as a scroll, and the earth 
itself has been burned up. Shall we help in this work 
or not? How shall we spend our time and money in 
this little earth-life? Shall we take all the money we 
worked so hard to get and use it for things that will 
pass away and be forgotten forever when we sleep in 
our graves? Rather would we not wish that when we 
"rest from our labors" our "works may follow us" and 
go on, and on, a blessing to mankind? 

Over the earth rise daily the soul-cries of millions 
of earth's suffering ones — they are crying to Christians : 
"Teach us of Jesus, the way of Life Eternal. Give us 
light." For all that is being done to-day, there are 
still millions that are "quietly left by the church one 
generation after another to grow up in sin" and suf- 
fering and false religions — left to die! Where are the 
Christians that will hasten to the rescue of immortal 



THINK AND ACT. 95 

men and women? Indulge in needless luxuries when 
with the money thus used you might help on work that 
would save from eternal darkness men and women 
for whom Jesus died? 

Reader are you doing all you can do ? Remember 
the poverty of the Son of God. Is there nothing for 
you to give up that more souls may be taught of him ? 
Value the things of this life as you will in the Judg- 
ment Day when you see the wailing multitudes on the 
left hand. Would you live well on earth? Would you 
have your life not lived in vain ? Then do all you can 
to help on in the work of soul saving. Work hard ; 
get more money to give for this greatest of all works. 
Work for eternity ! 

Good plans are not enough. There are some 
zealous people who are always wanting to know the 
methods pursued by successful workers. No doubt 
there is something in wise plans. There are ways of 
working that are better than other ways. There is a 
great power in an effective organization. But, after all, 
the very best plans alone amount to nothing. That 
which gives success is downright, honest, skilful work. 
The old painter said he mixed colors with brains, to 
give them such a beauty upon the canvas. Successful 
men win their success, not by dexterous arts and scien- 
tific maneuvering, but by brain and brawn. Make the 
best plans you can, but be sure you put your whole 
heart and soul into them. Do it for Christ, and de- 
pending upon his blessing, you will not fail. 

The tree will not only lie as it falls, but it will fall 
as it leans. And the great question every one should 



g6 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

bring home to himself is, "What is the inclination of 
my soul? Does it, with all its affections and power, 
lean toward God or away from Him?" John Hall 
says, "Put your heart into Christ's hands; then a thou- 
sand speculations and doubts and guesses, born of 
self-love and conceit, will vanish into thin air." 

Franklin says, "Work to-day, for you know not 
how much you will be hindered to-morrow." 

"In every beginning think of the ending," says a 
well known author. "Action is generally defective, and 
proves an abortion without previous contemplation. 
Contemplation generates, action propagates." Mar- 
cus Antoninus writes, "The happiness of your life 
depends upon the quality of your thoughts, therefore 
guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no 
notions unsuitable to virtue and unreasonable to 
nature." 

We are not careful enough of those we love. We 
become used to their presence, and their real value 
becomes dulled; and often, in our carelessness, we are 
forgetful that though true gold — as we acknowledge 
our friends really to be — can not be tarnished, it 
may be scratched and dimmed by too rough handling. 
After the years are gone, and the friends, too, often- 
times, then it is we wish we had treated them more 
universally kind, and so with our own hand is the 
future planted with thorns. 

Act as if you realized Jesus by your side, and as 
you will wish you had done when you stand to give 
your account before the dread bar of eternal justice 
at the last day. No matter how slight the thing to be 



THINK AND ACT. 97 

done — George Herbert tells us we can sweep a room 
to the glory of God. 

" Who sweeps a room from love divine 
Makes that and the action fine." 

f 

That is a wise old saying, " Spend not all you have; 
believe not all you hear; tell not all you know, and do 
not all you can." There is so much work to be done 
that needs our hands, that it is a pity to waste any of 
our strength. When the game is not worth the candle, 
drop it at once. It is wasting time to look for milk in 
a gate-post, or blood in a turnip, or sense in a fool. 
Never ask a covetous man for money till you have 
boiled a flint soft. Don't sue a debtor who has not a 
penny to bless himself with — you will only be throw- 
ing good money after bad, which is like losing your 
ferret without getting the rabbit. Never offer a look- 
ing glass to a blind man ; if a man is so proud that he 
will not see his faults, he will only quarrel with you for 
pointing them out to him. It is of no use to hold a 
lantern to a mole, or to talk of heaven to a man who 
cares for nothing but his dirty money. There is a 
time for everything, and it is a silly thing to preach to 
drunken men; it is casting pearls before swine; get 
them sober and then talk to them soberly; if you lec- 
ture them while drunk, you act as if you were drunk 
yourself. 

As to serving the Lord with cold hearts and drowsy 
souls, there has been too much of it, and it causes 
religion to wither. Men ride stags when they hunt 
for gain, and snails when they are on the road to 
heaven. Preachers go on see-sawing, droning and 



98 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

prosing, and the people fall to yawning and folding 
their arms, and then say that God is withholding the 
blessing. Every sluggard, when he finds himself en- 
listed in the ragged regiment, blames his luck, and 
some churches have learned the same wicked trick. 
I believe that when Paul plants and Apollos waters, 
God gives the increase ; and I have no patience with 
those who throw the blame on God when it belongs to 
themselves. 

Time is not tied to a post like a horse to a manger; 
it passes like the wind, and he who would grind his 
corn by it must set the mill-sails. He that gapes till 
he is fed, will gape till he be dead. Nothing is to be 
got without pains except poverty and dirt. In the old 
days they said, "Jack gets on by his stupidity;" Jack 
would find it very different nowadays, I think; but 
never in old times, or any other times, would Jack get 
on by foolishly letting present chances slip by him; for 
hares never run into the mouths of sleeping dogs. 
He that hath time, and looks for better time, time 
comes that he repents himself of time. There's no 
good in lying down and crying "God help us!" God 
helps those who help themselves. When I see a man 
who declares that the times are bad, and that he is 
always unlucky, I generally say to myself, that old 
goose did not sit on the eggs till they were all addled, 
and now Providence is to be blamed because they 
won't hatch. I never had any. faith in luck at all, ex- 
cept that I believe good luck will carry a man over a 
ditch if he jumps well, and will put a bit of bacon into 
his pot if he looks after his garden and keeps a pig. 



THE STRONG MAN. 99 

Luck generally comes to those who look after it, and 
my notion is that it taps at least once in a lifetime at 
everybody's door, but if industry does not open it, 
away it goes. Those who have lost the last coach, and 
let every opportunity slip by them, turn to abusing 
Providence for setting everything against them: "If 
I were a hatter," says one, "men would be born without 
heads." "If I went to the sea for water," quoth an- 
other, "I should find it dried up." Every wind is foul 
for a crazy ship. Neither the wise nor the wealthy 
can help him who has long refused to help himself. 



*$*•§- 



<5he Strong CQan. 

Paul's exhortation to the Corinthian Christians, 
" Quit you like men ; be strong," never needed strong- 
er urging than to-day. The command itself is a stir- 
ring one. It rings out like the authoritative utterance 
of a military chieftain. In imagination we can see the 
shadowy outline of the warlike hosts preparing for the 
work of defense or aggression ; and as, in the dim dis- 
tance, the banner of the advancing foe is seen flutter- 
ing in the breeze, and as the heavy strains of martial 
music are heard, indicating their advance movement, 
the voice of the commander in calm, measured tones 
is heard saying, "Be brave; be bold; stand to your 
places in the hour of conflict; quit you like men ; be 
strong." 



IOO WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

Thus on the field where Right is arrayed against 
Wrong, Truth against Error, Sin against Holiness, the 
Great Commander comes to the hosts of truth, right 
and holiness saying, "You see the banner of the 
enemy in the distance ; you can see their number and 
might; the contest will be long and severe ; but stand 
every man to his place in the ranks ; quit you like men; 
be strong." Never in the world's history has there 
been a time when men — men of principle, of firmness, 
of strong, well-vertebrated character — were more 
needed than now. We have fallen upon a time of 
general godlessness. 

To indifferentism — an absolute and total destitution 
of interest in the minds of the masses touching matters 
of eternal concernment — is superadded the influence 
of pernicious social customs and institutions that are 
surely dragging the young downward in the pathway 
of darkness. Of these we may mention the theatre, 
cards, the dance, horse-racing, and wine-drinking. 
And the chief danger attaching to these evils, and that 
which renders it a delicate matter for men to assume 
an attitude of hostility to them, is that among the 
patrons of, and apologists for, these social customs, are 
some of our good men as to moral and social worth. 
And were it not for the infusion of this element in the 
theatre, the dance and the card party, they would fall 
to pieces as a result of their own rottenness. 

To antagonize these false social customs, sustain- 
ed and upheld by the wealth and culture of many of 
our towns and cities — to brand that as wrong and cor- 
rupting which wealth and social position declare to be 



THE STRONG MAN. IOI 

right, chaste and elevating, requires a degree of hero- 
ism scarcely below that of the martyrs during the dark 
days of blood and persecution. 

We are all but children of a larger growth. Boys 
do not like to be laughed at by their young companions. 
It requires a very strong and straight moral backbone 
to enable a boy to pursue an even course of right 
when his companions are continually calling out in his 
ears, " Tied to your mother's apron strings." So when 
men are ever ready to brand us as "old fogies," to jot 
us down as good-meaning fellows, but " forty years be- 
hind the times," we need a good deal of grit to stand 
firm. But here is just where the apostolic injunction, 
"Quit you like men ; be strong," comes in with tremen- 
dous force and meaning. In defense of truth and right 
— for the honor and glory of him who gave his life for 
us — we are to be ready to have our names cast out as 
evil, if need be. 

Rely on yourself; take it for granted that you can 
accomplish your plans. Never say " I can't " ; they 
are ignoble words. He who does not feel within him- 
self the power to conquer fate is not a man in the true 
sense of the word. Of course it is a misfortune for 
him, since he can never be of any benefit to himself or 
anybody else. Heaven help the woman who marries 
him ! Somebody says, " O, I don't like these self-con- 
ceited folks ! " My friend, self-conceit and self-confi- 
dence are two qualities as different as light and dark- 
ness ; and though the self-conceited man may not be 
the most agreeable of companions, we infinitely prefer 
him to the creeping, cringing, mean-spirited fellow who 



102 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

is never ready for an emergency, and who, like Uriah 
Heep, spends his life in trying to be "umble." 

The man who says "I will do it ! " — who says from 
his heart and means it too, — who bends his whole en- 
ergy to the work almost always accomplishes it ; and 
then people call him lucky 4 and successful, and all that 
sort of thing, when, in fact, his luck has been brought 
about by his own persevering efforts, and by his confi- 
dence in himself. Fortune detests cowardice, and the 
man who will not be conquered by trifles is a prime 
favorite. 

Things which never could have made a man happy 
develop a power to make him strong. Strength and 
not happiness, or rather only that happiness which 
comes by strength, is the end of human living. And 
with that test and standard the best order and beauty 
reappear. 

Man is capable of greater suffering than any other 
creature on earth, but he is capable of higher and in- 
tenser enjoyment, and that simply because he is a man 
and not merely an animal. He must conquer himself 
and the world in order to be forever mighty. 

To achieve the greatest results the man must die 
to himself, must cease to exist in his own thoughts. 
Not until he has done this does he begin to do aught 
that is great. 

No man has come to true greatness who has not 
felt in some degree that his life belongs to his race, 
and what God gives him, he gives him for mankind. 

The soul knows what justice is ; and in those who 
approve, and in those who resist, truth creates con- 



THE STRONG MAN. 103 

science. Those who resist are irritated ; those who 
obey grow strong within themselves. 

Storms rage with more or less fury about every 
earnest man who seeks to follow Christ fully ; but with 
his mind stayed on God he stands safe, undisturbed, in 
the calm of the master's benediction. 

It is impossible to make a man of worth out of one 
who has no reliable character for a backbone. A youth 
without character will absorb whatever he comes in 
contact with that it is easy to absorb ; and the very 
easiest thing there is to drink into one's nature is the 
sin that lies around us. 

Mind is superior to things, not because it is free 
from law, but because it is law unto itself. The true 
man is he who freely and gladly obeys the laws of his 
being ; who is not drawn hither and thither by every 
passing impulse or influence, but steadfastly follows 
the leadings of his conscience and his own ever-pro- 
gressing standard of right-doing. Thus he is, first of 
all, true to himself; and in so being, he is true to all 
others. If he makes a promise, he is sure to keep it ; 
if he enters into a contract, he will fulfill it both in let- 
ter and in spirit ; if he assumes a relation, he will be 
certain to discharge its obligations ; and this, not from 
outward compulsion, not from the fear of social or 
personal disfavor, not from the influence of circum- 
stances or feelings ; but from his own secret loyalty to 
the right, which is the essence of all true freedom. 

Christian obligation cannot be made to accord with 
a law of expediency. The Christian's maxims are : 
" Do right, because you are bound to do right " ; " Do 



104 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

right, though the heavens fall." There is a world of 
difference between " You had better " and " You are 
bound to." 

Dr. Holland was a strict temperance man. When 
asked as to his habits, he said : " I neither drink wine 
nor give it to my guests. Strong drink is the curse 
of the country and the age. Sixty thousand men in 
America every year lie down in the grave of the 
drunkard. Drink has murdered my best friends, and 
I hate it. It burdens me with taxes, and I denounce it 
as a nuisance, on which every honest man should put 
his heel." 

The lesson is simple. Godliness with contentment 
is great gain. The Midianitish seer perished through 
covetousness. Be content with what things ye have. 
That keen wit, Douglass Jerrold, has said that he dines 
in state, though on a biscuit and an onion, if he dines 
out of debt ; he wears a warm coat, no matter how 
threadbare, if there be a tailor's receipt in its pocket ; 
there is gloss in a well-worn hat, and Tyrian purple in 
a faded waistcoat, if they both be paid for. A heart 
at peace in a whitewashed garret, an eye that sees 
wine in a pure, cold spring, and a mouth that can wa- 
ter at the sight of "the stale bread of last week, will 
make its possessor a true son of liberty, and free as 
the singing lark above his head. 



COMMON SENSE. IO5 



Common Sense. 

Common sense is not a common thing. Common 
sense is as different from genius as perception is from 
invention ; yet, though distinct qualities, they frequent- 
ly subsist together. It is altogether opposite to wit, 
but by no means inconsistent with it. It is not science, 
for there is such a thin<r as unlettered common sense; 
yet, though it is neither wit, learning, nor genius, it is 
a substitute for each, where they do not exist, and the 
perfection of all, where they do. 

Common sense appears to differ from taste in this, 
that taste is an instantaneous decision of the mind, a 
sudden relish of what is beautiful, or disgust at wmat 
is defective in an object, without waiting for the slower 
confirmation of the judgment. Common sense is 
perhaps that confirmation which establishes a suddenly 
conceived idea, or feeling, by the powers of comparing 
and reflecting. They differ also in this, that taste seems 
to have a more immediate reference to arts, to litera- 
ture, and almost every object of the senses ; while 
good sense rises to moral excellence, and exerts its in- 
fluence on life and manners. Taste is fitted to the 
perception and enjoyment of whatever is beautiful in 
art or nature; common sense to the improvement of 
the conduct, and the regulation of one's every day 
life. 

It is the peculiar property of genius to strike out 
in great or beautiful things; it is the felicity of common 



106 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

sense not to do absurd ones. Genius breaks out in 
splendid sentiments and elevated ideas ; common 
sense confines its more circumscribed, but perhaps 
more useful walk, within the limits of prudence and 
propriety. 

Whatever is elegant is also rare : what is useful is 
more common. How many thousands are born quali- 
fied for the coarse employments of life, for one who is 
capable of excelling in the fine arts ! yet so it ought to 
be, because our natural wants are more numerous, and 
more importunate, than the intellectual. But what the 
greater part of the world mean by common sense will 
be generally found, on a closer inquiry, to be art, fraud, 
or selfishness ! That sort of saving prudence which 
makes men. extremely attentive to their own safety or 
profit ; diligent in the pursuit of their own pleasures 
or interests ; and perfectly at their ease as to what be- 
comes of the rest of mankind. Furies, where their 
own property is concerned ; philosophers, when 
nothing but the good of others is at stake; and per- 
fectly resigned under all calamities but their own. 

Common sense will teach every man that the moral 
law is binding upon every intelligence in the universe. 
How can its precepts be annulled or relaxed ? Is not 
every one, man or angel, bound to worship God, and 
God alone ? Can any one be excused from honoring 
his parents ? Will there ever be a time when the pre- 
cepts against stealing, adultery, perjury, murder, covet- 
ousness, will be repealed ? Will it not be the duty of 
every moral agent to love God with all his powers, 
and his neighbor as himself, to all eternity? 



COMMON SENSE. IO7 

Man is not born to solve the problem of the uni- 
verse, but to find out what he has to do; and to re- 
strain himself within the limits of his comprehension. 
It is unwise to disbelieve any statement of God's word 
simply because we cannot understand that statement 
at a glance. Minds are not made larger or richer by 
indiscriminately sifting through them the facts of yester- 
day after yesterday. 

The fountain of content must spring up in the mind; 
and he who has so little knowledge of human nature 
as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own 
disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts, and 
multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove. 

Christianity is a system of common sense as well 
as of grace. It places under prohibition those things, 
and those only, that are hurtful. The parent permits 
the child, in the exuberance of its glad, young, joyous 
life, to chase the beautiful and harmless butterfly; to 
pluck the pansy or the dahlia ; but interdicts its ap- 
proach to the den of rattlesnakes ; forbids its playing 
with the brier and the thorn. Thus God permits men, 
aye enjoins upon them, to love truth, and right, and 
virtue, because, in the very constitution of his own 
moral government, these things produce a golden 
harvest of peace and happiness in the life. God com- 
mands holiness of heart and life, because it fits men for 
the enjoyment of holy delights beyond the skies. He 
forbids impurity, sin in all its forms, because the end 
thereof is death. And the man who has appetite, 
passion, lust under control, who is their master and not 
their slave, who uses these as sources of power to im- 



108 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

pel him onward in the way of right doing, even as the 
engineer uses the steam to drive the ponderous ma- 
chinery of the engine, — that man is the highest type of 
a freeman. And when he has conquered wholly, be- 
come the master of all that is evil in and around him, 
become a freeman in Christ Jesus, then God, at the 
close of life's great battle, will bring him up to the 
glory beyond, where all the Christian heroes are gath- 
ering, to wear the garlands of victory evermore. 

Innumerable blessings surround us all the time, 
and these we should not forget in our ardent desires 
to reach those just in advance. The word of sympa- 
thy, the true friend, the sunshine, and all the other 
countless small joys of to-day, should not be allowed 
to pass unheeded. To-morrow may, indeed, bring 
unexpected pleasures if we improve and enjoy the 
present. To neglect the golden opportunities of to- 
day may bring to us nought but pain and remorse. 
Heed not the stories of fiction and romance, but let us 
do our duty in the present. While we are in the 
world we have to do with the world, but let usdo with 
its living realities, and not with that which fancy paints, 
or the imagination depicts in such glowing and bril- 
liant colors. Grasp the attainable, if it be a laudable 
object, and reach not after that which reason and 
intelligence declare can never be attained. Reject 
not the friend who reaches out a hand and offers his 
sympathy ; it is better far than the friendship for 
which you pay a price. 

There is a lack of ordinary business shrewdness 
on the part of some Christian men and some Christian 



COMMON SENSE. IO9 

institutions which is simply amazing. It exhibits itself 
in loose management and want of provision — in letting 
things drift, and trusting in luck baptized with the 
name of Providence ; and though by a wretched carica- 
ture of faith this is miscalled a "life of trust," it is 
nothing but a religious Micawberism, that folds its 
hands and expects something to "turn up." 

"God helps those who help themselves." There 
is no warrant in scripture or in history for disregard 
of the ordinary laws of security and success. At the 
gathering of one of the great benevolent societies a 
few years ago, the exceedingly sensible proposition 
was made to effect life insurances in the case of its 
missionaries. The suggestion was vehemently op- 
posed by one of the "fathers in grace," who argued 
that "those who were doing the Lord's work ought to 
trust the future of their families to the Lord's care," 
and not be guilty of such an impious forestalling of 
Divine Providence as an actual business arrangement 
for their possible wants. Shame to say it, the good 
brother's wretched logic prevailed, and the proposition 
was lost; but he himself soon after died, leaving his 
family without a dollar, dependent upon the charity 
of the world for the barest necessaries of food and 
clothing. 

The world goes on year after year. We can use 
its forces, and shape and mould them, and perfect this 
thing or that, but we cannot make new forces; we only 
use the tools we find to carve the wood we find. There 
is nothing new; we discover and combine and use. 
Here is the wild fruit — the same fruit at heart as that 



IIO WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

with which the gardener wins his prize. The world is 
the same world. You find a diamond, but the diamond 
was there a thousand years ago ; you did not make it 
by finding it. We grow spiritually, until we grasp 
some new great truth of God; but it was always true, 
and waited for us until we came. What is there new 
and strange in the world except ourselves? Our 
thoughts are our own ; God gives our life to us moment 
by moment, but he gives it to be our own. 

" Ye on your harps must learn to hear 
A secret chord that mine will bear." 

The years which we spend here in doing our work 
depend to a great extent on the way we manage our- 
selves. If we lead a strained and jerky life, we soon 
wear out and drop by the wayside. If we look care- 
fully about us, take full note of the work we are to 
do, and then do it calmly and deliberately, " never 
resting, never wasting," as Goethe used to sing, we 
shall live double the ordinary working years of the 
average spasmodic American. To suppose that a 
man is immortal until his work is done depends en- 
tirely upon three things: the kind of a man he is, the 
kind of work he is doing, and the way he does it. A 
bad or foolish man, or a capable man working un- 
wisely, has no reason or scripture on his side that he 
will live out half his days. 

In the pocket-book of the Hon. Stephen Allen, who 
was drowned from on board the "Henry Clay," was 
found a printed slip, apparently cut from a newspaper, 
a copy of which we give below: 

"Keep good company, or none. Never be idle. 



COMMON SENSE. I I I 

If your hands can't be usefully employed, attend to 
the cultivation of your mind. Always speak the truth. 
Make few promises. Live up to your engagements. 
Keep your own secrets, if you have any. When you 
speak to a person look him in the face. Good com- 
pany and good conversation are the very sinews of 
virtue. Good character is above all things else. Your 
character cannot be essentially injured except by your 
own acts. If any one speaks evil of you, let your life 
be so that none will believe him. Drink no kind of 
intoxicating liquors. Ever live (misfortune excepted) 
within your income. When you retire to bed think 
over what you have been doing during the day. Make 
no haste to be rich if you would prosper. Small and 
steady gains give competency, with a tranquil mind. 
Never play at any game of chance. Avoid temptation 
through fear you may not withstand it. Earn money 
before you spend it. Never run into debt unless you 
see a way to get out again. Never borrow if you can 
possibly avoid it. Do not marry until you are able to 
support a wife. Never speak evil of any one. Be 
just before you are generous. Keep yourself inno- 
cent if you would be happy. Save when you are 
young, to spend when you are old. Read over the 
above maxims at least once a week." 

I would rather that my boy possessed good com- 
mon sense to start him in life than plenty of money. 
If he has not this common sense, no amount of train- 
ing will greatly alter his condition in this respect. 
When I hear a father call his child a ninny, a block- 
head, a simpleton, a stupid donkey, or a fool (as some 



I I 2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

parents will when they forget themselves), it occurs to 
me that such remarks rather reflect on the head of the 
family. The child, however, usually knows very well 
that his father is only excited and does not mean what 
he says; 

The next desirable requisite in my child's outfit 
would be a naturally cheerful disposition ; not that I 
prefer the natural to the cultivated, for I do not. Cul- 
tivated cheerfulness is a charming part of any one's 
character, yet the natural is the surest, since I am very 
doubtful as to my being able to teach him how to ac- 
quire it. I should try to be cheerful myself, and thus 
induce him never to look on the gloomy side of life. 

If the sun is going down, look up at the stars ; if the 
earth is dark, keep your eyes on heaven. With God's 
presence, and God's promises, a man or a child may 
be cheerful — 

" Never despair when fog's in the air ! 
A sunshiny morning will come without warning." 

Mind what you run after. Never be content with 
a bubble that will burst, or a firework that will end in 
smoke and darkness. Get that which you can keep, 
and which is worth keeping — 

" Something sterling, that will stay 
When gold and silver fly away." 

To wait before you bestow liberty, or political 
rights, until the recipients are fit to employ them 
aright, is to resolve not to go into the water until you 
can swim. You must make up your mind to encoun- 
ter very many evils at first, and for some time, while 
men are learning to use the advantages that are con- 



SELF-CONTROL. I I 3 

ferred on them. "But on the other hand," says a mod- 
ern writer, " this error of taking some step prema- 
turely, or of doing at one stride what would better 
have been done gradually, arises often, with sensible 
men, from a sense of the shortness and uncertainty of 
life (political or individual) and an impatience to 'see 
of the labor of his soul and be satisfied,' instead of 
leaving his designs to be carried into execution, or to 
be completed, by others, who may perhaps, he fears, 
not do the work so well, or may be defeated by some 
rally of opponents." 



SELF-(90NU^0Ii. 

He that would govern others, first should be the 
master of himself. 

The basis of a useful life must be a vigorous and 
wholesome discipline in youth. It does not matter 
much in what department of business a young man 
commences life. If he will only cultivate his faculties 
he may rise to the head of his profession, and if that 
profession be unworthy of him, he will at last escape 
from it altogether. 

The heroic self-control which "dies and makes no 
sign" is a virtue of which very few are capable. As I 
once heard a small commentator remark on the poem 
of Enoch Arden : " Yes, it was very good of Enoch 
not to tell his story until he died ; but, mamma, what a 
pity he didn't die and say nothing at all ! " 



114 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

The true Christian service is not rendered, pri- 
marily, because it is pleasant or brings honor to self, 
or even because our fellow-workers are agreeable, or 
those we benefit grateful ; but because Jesus asks the 
service, and others need it. In this spirit let us meet 
friction. We shall be enabled, in a good degree, to 
do our duty and leave the event to God, without wear- 
ing care. Worriment is the worst friction, except evil 
passion. We shall learn to bear and forbear. Our 
object being to honor the Lord and bless souls, we 
shall disregard personal slights, little unpleasantnesses 
(and great ones, too, if need be), and work right on in 
the Master's spirit. Only in this way can we acquire 
that self-control which friction cannot excite to indis- 
creet speech or foolish act. Only so can we show that 
gentleness of manner which, when it covers resolute 
firmness, gives its possessor the power, not only to 
rule others, but to confer a favor on them by so 
doing. 

Never show that you feel a slight. This is worldly- 
wise as well as Christian ; for no one but a mean per- 
son will put a slight on another, and such a person al- 
ways profoundly respects the person who is uncon- 
scious of his feeble spite. Never resent publicly a 
lack of courtesy ; it is in the worst taste. What you 
do privately about dropping such an acquaintance 
must be left to yourself. 

To a person of noble mind the contests of society 
must ever seem poor and spurious as they think of 
these narrow enmities and low political maneuvers ; 
but we know that they exist and that we must meet 



SELF-CONTROL. I I 5 

them. Temper, detraction and small spite are as vul- 
gar on a Turkey carpet and in a palace as they could 
be in a tenement house ; nay, worse ; for the educated 
contestants know better. But, that they exist we know 
as well as we know that the diphtheria rages. We 
must only reflect philosophically that it takes all sorts 
of people to make a world ; that there are good people, 
rank and file ; that there is a valiant army and a noble 
navy ; that there are also pirates who will board the 
best ships, and traitors in every army ; and that we 
must be ready for them all ; and that if we live in a 
crowd we must propitiate that crowd. 

Never show a factious or peremptory irritability in 
small things. Be patient, if a friend keeps you wait- 
ing. Bear, as long as you can, heat or a draft, rather 
than make others uncomfortable. Do not be fussy 
about your supposed rights ; yield a disputed point of 
precedence. All society has to be made up of these 
concessions ; they are your unnumbered friends in the 
long run. 

We are not always wrong when we quarrel ; but if 
we meet our deadliest foe at a friend's house, we are 
bound to treat him with perfect civility. That is neu- 
tral ground. Never by word or look disturb your 
hostess ; this is an occasional duplicity which is or- 
dered by the laws of society. And, in all honesty, 
cultivate a graceful salutation, not too familiar, in a 
crowd. Do not kiss your friend in a crowd ; be grave 
and decorous always. Burke said that manners were 
more important than laws. " Manners are what vex 
or soothe, comfort or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize 



Il6 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

or refine us by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible 
operation, like the air we breathe." 

Never say anything you would be ashamed to utter 
in the presence of ladies and gentlemen. We seek to 
control others, yet how few of us are masters of our- 
selves. Adversity borrows its sharpest sting from our 
impatience. 

A bridle is very necessary in guiding and restrain- 
ing an unruly horse; and it is very needful in con- 
trolling that unruly member, the tongue. "Don't go 
without the bridle, boys," was my grandfather's favor- 
ite bit of advice. If he heard any one cursing or 
swearing, or given to much vain and foolish talk, 
"That man has lost his bridle," he would say. "With- 
out a bridle the tongue, though a little member, 'boast- 
eth great things.' It is an unruly member, /full of 
deadly poison.' Put a bridle on, and it is one of the 
best servants body and soul can have. T will keep 
my mouth with a bridle,' said King David. Be sure, 
too, to keep a bridle on your appetite. Don't let it be 
your master. And don't neglect to have one for your 
passions, or they will get unmanageable, driving you 
down a headlong course to ruin." My grandfather 
was speaking of the bridle of self-control. Good par- 
ents try to train and restrain their children; and you 
can generally tell by the children's behavior whether 
they have such wise and faithful parents. But parents 
cannot do everything. Boys and girls must have their 
own bridles; they must learn to check and govern 
themselyes. Self-government is the most difficult and 
the most important government to teach us; but it 



SELF-CONTROL. I 1 J 

becomes easier every day if you practice it with a 
steady, resolute will, and a firm trust in Him who alone 
can teach us wisely to rule our own spirits. 

If it is a small sacrifice for you to give up drinking 
wine, do it for the sake of others ; if it is a great sac- 
rifice, do it for your own sake. It is easier to suppress 
the first impure desire than to satisfy all that follow. 

One of the most important, but one of the most 
difficult things for a powerful mind is, to be its own 
master. Minerva should always be at hand, to re- 
strain Achilles from blindly following his impulses and 
appetites, even those which are moral and intellectual, 
as well as those which are animal and sensual. A pond 
may lie quiet in a plain ; but a lake wants mountains 
to compass and hold it in. 

He is a fool who cannot be angry ; but he is a wise 
man who will not. The constancy of sages is nothing 
but the art of locking up their agitation in their hearts. 
There are few people who are more often in the 
wrong than those who cannot endure to be so. 

Sometimes too much advice is given, but he or she 
lacks self-control and the true spirit, who does not take it 
kindly. Some boys and girls think they know a great 
deal more than they really do, and persons who 
have had experience should be courteously listened 
to, even if their ideas are old-fashioned, as they 
sometimes are. 

A well-known Bostonian was writing about a place 
where he had never been, and thus got a matter wrong. 
A friend, in thorough kindness, called his attention to 
it, when he became very indignant. Such a man has 



Il8 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

neither a big heart nor a well-balanced mind. A real 
gentleman or lady knows how to take all suggestions 
kindly. 



Wanted, p CQan. 

The great need of the age, says a writer in our 
current literature, is men, business men, men of practi- 
cal sense, men of push and energy, men who can grasp 
the details of business and carry it forward to a suc- 
cessful issue. 

This is a just and reasonable demand ; for it is men, 
in the highest sense, who are to make the world bright- 
er and better in every way. 

John Ploughman says : " A hard working young 
man with his wits, about him will make money, while 
others will do nothing but lose it. 'Who loves his 
work and knows how to spare, may live and flourish 
anywhere.' As to a little trouble, who expects to 
find cherries without stones, or roses without thorns ? 
Who would win must learn to bear. Idleness lies in 
bed sick of the mulligrubs, where industry finds health 
and wealth. The dog in the kennel barks at flies ; the 
hunting dog does not know that they are there. 
Laziness waits till the river is dry, and never gets to 
market." 

Young man, don't be afraid that honest, legitimate 
overwork will shorten your days. It is better to wear 
out in a home, built up by your own efforts, at the age 



WANTED, A MAN. II9 

of sixty-five, than it is to rust out in the poor-house 
five years later. 

A leading Baptist paper has the following : " The 
demand for ministers for the first places was never 
greater in our denomination than it is to-day. If one 
of our leading pulpits becomes vacant the country is 
canvassed from Maine to Florida for a worthy man 
for the place. There never was so much room up- 
stairs in the Baptist denomination as now. Ministers 
abound, but not of the kind needed. For any average 
place vacant there are a dozen applications. But pul- 
pit committees of the leading churches know that they 
have a hard task before them ; they are virtually lim- 
ited to a few men. The men they want they can't 
get ; the men they can easily get they do not at all 
want." 

The greatest want of this age is men. Men who 
are not for sale. Men who are honest, sound from 
centre to circumference, true to the heart's core. Men 
who will condemn wrong in friend or foe, in themselves 
as well as others. Men whose consciences are steady 
as the needle to the pole. Men who will stand for the 
right if the heavens totter and the earth reels. Men 
who can tell the truth and look the devil right in the 
eye. Men that never brag nor run. Men that neither 
swagger nor flinch. Men who can have courage with- 
out whistling for it, and joy without shouting to bring 
it. Men in whom the current of everlasting life runs 
still, and deep and strong. Men careful of God's hon- 
or and careless of men's applause. Men who know 
their duty and do it. Men who know their places and 



120 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

fill them. Men who will not lie. Men who are not too 
lazy to work, nor too proud to be poor. Men who are 
willing to eat what they have earned, and wear what 
they have paid for. Men whose feet are on the ever- 
lasting rock. Men who are strong with divine 
strength, wise with the wisdom that cometh from above, 
and loving with the love of Christ. Men of God. 

The large majority of men do not use a tithe of 
the power they possess. Their talents are mostly in a 
napkin. One of the wealthiest men in Wall street 
to-day broke down in business a good many years 
ago. He went into an office where he was well ac- 
quainted, and said to the members of the firm that he 
had no bread for his family. " I am ready to go mes- 
sages for you, or perform any other service." He 
hung up his coat there, and commenced work around 
the lowest rung of the ladder. Previously this man's 
check was accepted anywhere on the street. You 
may be sure such a man gradually mounted up. 

Over in Boston a like-minded man fell out. He 
was without bread, and soon would be without shoes, 
unless he wakened up and stirred his energies. He 
was a bookkeeper, and at one time earned a handsome 
salary. What did he do ? This he did. He took 
a cotton -hook and went down to the wharf to 
load and unload cotton at so much an hour. Behold 
another man with grit. The owners of the cotton 
and the ship eyed this hero. Soon the decree went 
forth : Come up higher. He resumed his quill, and 
laid aside the cotton-hook. Discouragement never 
weakened the Boston boy. Whiners, with hanging 



WANTED, A MAN. 121 

lips and chicken hearts who cure their troubles with 
the bottle or the pistol, are pitiful creatures, who should 
never have been born. 

Ambition is a good thing if it act under moral 
limits and proposes to itself worthy ends. But suc- 
cess in a mere worldly career ought not to be enough 
for a young man's ambition. It is not improper for 
one to begin life with an ardent purpose to obtain 
wealth. But there should be something higher than 
that before every young man, and that is character. 
A man's own self is more valuable to him than any 
amount of riches. Wealth is not an auxiliary to hap- 
piness. A man's own nature is the primary agent in 
the production of satisfaction. Thousands of men 
get rich without happiness. Other thousands gain 
happiness without ever becoming rich. 

You are placed in life to build up your manhood. 
All right industries, all care and enterprise, all hopes, 
fears and sorrows, are formative influences — lessons 
which Providence sets to men in the school of life; and 
while they may result in producing wealth, they have 
failed of their end if they do not produce manliness. 

More men stumble for want of moral qualities 
than for want of business capacity. Men do not put 
their standard of integrity high enough. They do not 
cling to it with enough severity. A good character is 
to a man what a pontoon train is to an army. An 
army may march for days without needing it, and it 
may even seem a hindrance; but the first broad and 
deep river reveals its value. 

The good old book cautions men about "making 



122 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

haste to be rich." To do one any good, riches must 
be earned. We must render a fair equivalent of ser- 
vice for every dollar. Money got by gambling, by 
trick, by the lower forms of speculation, seldom stays 
by a man. Every young man should be willing to 
wait till he has fairly earned his money by good hard 
work, and enough of it. 

Thousands of men breathe, move and live; pass 
off the stage of life and are heard of no more. Why? 
They did not a particle of good in the world; and 
none were blest by them; none could point to them as 
the instruments of their redemption; not' a line they 
wrote, not a word they spoke, could be recalled, and 
so they perished- — their light went out in darkness, 
and they were not remembered more than the insects 
of yesterday. Will you thus live and die? Live for 
something. Do good and leave behind you a monu- 
ment of virtue that the storm of time can never 
destroy. 

Write your name by kindness, love and mercy on 
the hearts of the thousands you come in contact with 
year by year, and you will never be forgotten. No; 
your name, your deeds, will be as legible on the hearts 
you leave behind as the stars on the brow of evening. 
Good deeds will shine as bright on the earth as the 
stars of heaven. 

The most splendid creation of God is a good, great 
man ; higher is he than the sun, or the stars, or the 
shining glory of the firmament. The most perfect 
specimen of athletic training ever produced, if bone 
and flesh and sinew are his all, is but one third a man, 



PENNY WISE, POUND FOOLISH. I 23 

and useless to society. Send him to the schools and 
store his mind full, he is but two-thirds a man, and 
dangerous as well as useless. Put Christ in his heart, 
to control and urge his purpose, and 4 you have an ideal 
man. 



©ENNY &5ISE, E?OUND FOOLISH. 

Of course, every virtue (like every coin) has its 
counterfeit. This holds true of frugality. There is a 
true frugality, and there is a false. Our saving may, 
perhaps, be more apparent than real. A man might 
walk from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, and save his car- 
fare ; but his expenses for maintenance on his way 
would leave him but a small margin of profit. We 
may save a trifle in money, but at a great cost in time, 
and (in the long run) in money. One may save six 
cents in street-car fare, but may miss an engagement, 
and thus lose a vast amount of time and money. One 
may reject the idea of hiring a carriage as madness ; 
he may walk through mud and rain, and in the end find 
that he has spoiled his clothes to an extent far beyond 
the expense of the carriage. If a man is caught in a 
shower, he may hesitate at the expense of buying an 
umbrella, yet the economy may be wasteful. 

As to one's dress, there are economies that are 
economies and there are economies that are no econo- 
mies. It may seem extravagant to have a multiplicity 
of dresses ; and yet it may be real economy. It would 
•certainly be very wasteful to have only one dress, and 



124 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

to use this dress for all purposes. It would be too* 
good for some occasions, and not good enough for 
others. A dress that will wear is better economy than 
a cheaper dress that comes to pieces. It costs no more 
to make a good dress than a poor one, and the former 
is worth more after it is done. 

But there is much about one's dress that is merely 
matter of fancy and fashion, and that does not concern 
health or comfort. Here there is a good chance for 
economy. A coat or a dress at a low price may wear 
as well and may be as comfortable as one much more 
expensive. 

The best investment, next to a good conscience, is 
health ; and it is a very wasteful economy that saves 
at the expense of health. It is very foolish to delay 
employing a physician, and thereby to entail long sick- 
ness and measureless expense. It is very foolish to 
refuse to employ a nurse, and to try to save by having 
all the nursing done by the members of the family, or 
by volunteer friends, who, of course, are ignorant and 
inexperienced. 

It is a very short-sighted saving for the mother of 
a family to be all day bending over the weekly mend- 
ing, darning half a peck of stockings, and bringing on 
headache and backache, and at the same time being 
unable to see to the house. It would be much better 
economy for her to employ some one to do this mend- 
ing and leaye her free for things that no one but 
herself can do. 

It is not wise economy for a man whose capital is 
in his brain, to stint and starve his brains. Five dol- 



PENNY WISE, POUND FOOLISH. 1 25 

lars spent by a young professional man in books may 
add one thousand dollars to his income. Five dollars 
may be saved, with the result of keeping him a poor 
man all his life. 

A father may save a few dollars by refusing to 
make the home inviting for his children ; but he may 
spend ten times that, yes, a hundred times, in getting 
them out of troubles which they have brought on by 
roaming in the streets. We believe in economy; but 
it is well to know whether it is real economy or false. 

A celebrated English author says: We have 
warped the word economy in our English language 
into a meaning which it has no business whatever to 
bear. In our use of it, it constantly signifies merely 
sparing or saving ; economy of money means saving 
money — economy of time, sparing time, and so on. 
But this is a wholly barbarous use of the word — bar- 
barous in a double sense, for it is not English and it is 
bad Greek. Economy no more means saving money 
than it means spending money. It means — the admin- 
istration of a house; its stewardship; spending or 
saving, that is, whether money or time, or anything 
else, to the best possible advantage. In the simplest 
and clearest definition of it, economy, whether public 
or private, means the wise management of labor ; and 
it means this mainly in three senses, namely: first, 
applying your labor rationally ; secondly, preserving 
its produce carefully ; lastly, distributing its produce 
carefully. 

Economy does not mean simply carefulness in dress 
by making things last as long as they will, but has a 



126 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

broader meaning than this. Time, accomplishments, 
and opportunities are talents for which you will be held 
responsible to Him who has given them. For this, 
reason try to economize them well. 

The duty of the hour is plain. First in our own 
households should economy be practiced — not that 
economy which considers the wants of the pocket and 
forgets the needs of the soul, not that economy which 
satisfies the body but starves the spirit, but wise 
adjustment of the claims of the animal and the 
rational man, which, while it clothes the body, does 
not allow the immortal part to suffer. All retrench- 
ment should not begin at the home of the soul. The 
Lord should not be cheated to enrich the worm. That 
is poor economy which fills the coffers of the carnal by 
bankrupting the spiritual man. Mental and moral 
education must not cease, for time unimproved here 
is time lost forever; moral forces must not be weakened 
in order to add power to the physical engines. 

To do work for work's sake, moderately, levelly, 
rationally, so as to preserve the power of doing it for 
the longest term that nature allows — this, the noblest 
aim a man can start with, becomes often swamped in 
the ignoble one of working merely to be superior to 
somebody else. Thus many a man who has earned,, 
or is earning, enough to live comfortably, and bring 
up his children well — and sufficiently well off, too, to 
begin with a fair start where their father did — goes on 
slaving and toiling, his wife aiding and abetting him,, 
in order to maintain them in the luxury to which he 
has risen, — a paternal devotion which has its touching 



PENNY WISE, POUND FOOLISH. 12J 

phase; and yet it is as blind as it is foolish. The 
children would be much better left to make their own 
way, and earn their own bread, like their father before 
them. 

And the father himself, by the time he has accumu- 
lated the thirty, forty, or fifty thousand which he has 
gradually learned to consider essential to happiness 
« — she, sly jade! has slipped away from him. He 
catches her, but she is like the crushed butterfly that 
his boys catch under their caps ; all her beauty is gone. 
Utterly worn out with work, he can neither enjoy life 
himself nor give enjoyment to other people. The 
strain of occupation gone, his weariness becomes 
intolerable. The irritability that an overtasked body 
and mind superinduces in most men, makes him, not 
a delight, but an actual nuisance, in his family. Those 
"often infirmities " which he had once no time to think 
much about now rise up like ghosts of the murdered 
to torment him wherever he goes. His handsome 
house, his country leisure or town pleasure, his abun- 
dance of friends, and his flourishing family, are to him 
no comfort, no resource. He has burned the candle 
at both ends, and now there is no light left in it; it just 
flickers awhile, and then — drops out. 

I ask earnestly, Is this picture overdrawn? Do I 
not paint the likeness — not of one, but of hundreds — 
of rich men among our acquaintances in this " golden 
age?" Midas himself could not have more bitterly 
applied the word. 

"The Presbyterian Banner," commenting upon the 
frequent failure of rich men's sons, says: "The great 



128 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

defect in the families referred to has been neglect to 
train the children to habits of economy and industry. 
They have been permitted to grow up in idleness, to 
spend money freely, to suppose that fashionable enjoy- 
ments were the great end of life, and to be without 
any definite 'employment or aim, while dissipation very 
naturally came in and completed the work of ruin. 
But the evil did not stop with themselves ; they easily 
attracted others without their wealth or social position 
to their circles, and by contact and example prevented 
them from rising in the world and made them even 
more insignificant and worthless than themselves." 

Never do evil expecting to escape the consequent 
punishment because of the good that may be pro- 
duced. The evil you sow will be sure to return an 
abundant harvest; good seed may be choked, but "ill 
weeds grow apace." People are prone to look at the 
evils which are at a distance through a telescope ; 
but when they inspect those under their feet they turn 
the instrument the other end to, making objects near 
them appear small and insignificant indeed. 

The following is related of Father Stephen Paxson : 
" He was offered at one time, on account of his 
extensive acquaintance with the West, and his integ- 
rity of character, a partnership in the purchase of 
western lands. The offer was declined, because it 
would divert him from the Sabbath-school work. In 
after years, the gentleman who had made the offer 
showed him a memorandum that the lands had pro- 
duced a revenue of fifty thousand dollars ; but Father 
Paxson, drawing his note-book from his pocket, pointed 




M €> FAfJE^ 



1 



THE FARMERS HOME. I 29 

to the record of fifty thousand children gathered by 
him into Sabbath-schools, and triumphantly exclaimed, 
* I would not alter the record, nor change the invest- 
ment.'" 

A gospel that costs nothing is an absurdity. It 
costs. It cost the life of the Son of God. It costs 
Christians untold and nameless sacrifices. No one 
can afford to receive it without giving back to the 
world, because of the blessings received. The theory 
that movements for the salvation of men can be 
advanced by any such rallying cry as "No pews or no 
collections" is a mistake, if it is not worse. Poverty 
is the result of such surroundings. A gospel that 
costs nothing is worth nothing. 



<9HE Fa^MEI^'3 f?OME. 

Seek not, ye sons of those who till the soil, 

For other fields in life than those ye reap ! 
Better by far the sweat of honest toil, 

The rest of honest labor's tranquil sleep, 
Than all the bubbles of the worldling's dream — 

The cares which rack the statesman's anxious brains — 
The uncertain ventures of the merchant's scheme, 

Or all the doubtful paths for fame and gain ! 

Agriculture is the basis of national strength and 

wealth, and a most certain and liberal support of all 

who follow it intelligently. The farmer will succeed 

who makes up his mind that the whole secret of 

success is in himself; that it is the man and not the 
9 



I30 . WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

business that tells. He will succeed if he sticks close 
to his farm as the mechanic does to his shop, and 
not expect to work three or four months and then 
take his ease the rest of the year. That farmer will 
isucceed who takes the papers and digests what he 
reads, and is not afraid of new ideas and new methods 
of industry. He will succeed if it is his intention that 
whatever he sends to market shall be the very best, 
and so made and put up that when seen it will be 
captivating for its freshness, cleanliness and purity, and 
will be unhesitatingly taken on account of his well- 
known character for honesty of weight, measure and 
count. Those who have farms may think themselves 
fortunate, for although they will not thereby find 
sudden roads to wealth, they will certainly prove that 
persistent farm labor will bring a sure reward. It is 
worthy of notice that the adventurer and speculator, 
with blasted hopes and shattered health and fortune, 
have in the end to come back to the farm for health 
and safety. 

Happy is the boy who has been reared in the 
healthful, intelligent atmosphere of a country home. 
When he' goes back to it after many days, how cor- 
dially he is greeted. Every hand is held out to him, 
from the white-haired grandfather to the smiling girl 
and bashful boy, whom he does not know, but who 
have heard of him. 

In a moral point of view, the life of the agriculturist 
is the most pure and holy of any class of men ; pure, 
because it is the most healthful, and vice can hardly 
find time to contaminate it ; and holy, because it brings 



THE FARMERS HOME. 131 

the Deity perpetually before his view, giving him 
thereby the most exalted notions of supreme power, 
and the most fascinating and endearing view of moral 
benignity. The agriculturist views the Deity in His 
works ; he contemplates the divine economy in the 
arrangement of the seasons; and he hails nature 
immediately presiding over every object that strikes, 
his eyes ; he witnesses many of her great and beau- 
teous operations, and her reproductive faculties ; his 
heart insensibly expands, from his minute acquaintance 
with multifarious objects, all in themselves original ; 
whilst that degree of retirement in which he is placed 
from the bustling haunts of mankind keeps alive in his 
breast his natural affections, unblunted by an extensive 
and perpetual intercourse with man in a more enlarged, 
and, therefore, in a more corrupt state of society. 

The risks in farming are comparatively few. There 
is no danger of ruin arising from the treachery of 
business associates. The farm, under ordinary cir- 
cumstances, is sure to furnish enough to make the 
family comfortable, and extraordinary circumstances, 
which are of a providential character always, are very 
apt to exist. The farmer is engaged in the production 
of articles which the public must have. It makes no» 
difference what else the people do without, they must 
have bread. They can wear their old clothes, but 
they must have new flour, and while a depression of 
the times may limit the demand, it cannot wholly 
destroy it. Thus is the farmer engaged in a business 
which is always active. 

See the "young farmers" who have just moved 



132 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

into their new home, and with conscious pride con- 
template its beauties at the close of day. Although 
they are but " renters," beginning life with small store 
of this world's goods, their happy hearts and ready 
hands will bring them an abundance of peace and 
prosperity. There is something in the pleasures of 
the country that reaches much beyond the gratification 
of the eye — a something that invigorates the mind, 
that erects its hopes, that allays its perturbations, that 
mellows its affections ; and it will generally be found 
that our happiest schemes and wisest resolutions are 
formed under the mild influence of a country scene 
and the soft obscurities of rural retirement. 

Every farmer should manage to get the most out 
of his occupation; not only the most money, but the 
most real and substantial enjoyment; the most intel- 
lectual culture; the most happiness for him and his. It 
should be so managed as to render farm life attractive 
to his children, so as to make them contented tillers of 
the soil; contented to be among the producers of the 
wealth of the nation. Money hoarded is but a poor 
compensation for minds and souls dwarfed ; for lives 
rendered unlovely; for tastes and the higher aspira- 
tions extinguished. And we trust the change which 
has been going on in this respect may continue until 
all of the large and valuable class of our population 
engaged in agriculture may be reached and benefited 
by it. 

Dr. Haygood tells this suggestive story : " Last 
winter we passed a field where a fifteen-dollar plow 
was standing in the last furrow it made. There it had 



THE FARMERS HOME. 1 33 

been standing for months. It was red with rust — the 
stock and handles black with mildew. The man's 
wagons were out in the yard ; a McCormick reaper 
was divided, part in the yard, part in the field, and 
part under shelter ; and his farm under mortgage for 
the guano he had used to make cotton enough to pay 
for the tools and implements he bought last year ! 
His smoke-house was in Cincinnati, his corn-crib in 
Chicago ! The few hogs he had were in his garden ; 
while his poor cows — their hair turned the wrong 
way in premonition of their death in the spring — were 
drawn up in a shivering group around a pile of straw 
that was rotting in the field ! There were five dogs, 
and not a ram, ewe, wether or lamb, black sheep or 
white sheep, in sight!" 

The hap-hazard, careless style of doing work so 
common among the largest class of farmers would 
ruin any business man within a year. The careless 
habits of farmers, and their lack of proper forethought, 
accounts for more than nine-tenths of the proverbial 
"hard times" from which they suffer. Little things 
are neglected and wasted that would be saved and 
cared for by the prosperous merchant or railroad 
employe, while the very profusion of his supply 
renders the farmer extravagant and indolent. Hours 
and days are spent in running to town or to the 
neighbors' for some forgotten thing or other that 
ought to have been remembered and provided for in 
advance. Time is the most valuable thing a farmer 
possesses, and yet is the least cared for. 

Twenty years ago the state of Mississippi, always 



134 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

famous for its cotton yield, contained about forty thou- 
sand plantations, averaging three hundred and seven 
acres each ; now she has nearly twice as many, but the 
average size is only half that of i860. The number of 
acres under cultivation is less than in i860, for scarcely 
any rough land has been cleared and some plantations 
have been injured by broken levees, and yet the cotton 
crop is about twice as large as it was in the good old 
times. No better proof could be wanted to establish 
the desirability of decreasing the size of farms and 
increasing the number of owners; but the reason 
should be learned elsewhere as in the South. Whole 
counties in the United States are wretchedly poor 
because every farmer is trying to handle a " quarter 
section" — one hundred and sixty acres — with only 
enough capital and working force to properly till a 
quarter as much soil. 

A farmer with two poor horses, two bad plows, a 
boy or two or a hired man, can get no more money 
out of a hundred and sixty acres of land than from 
forty, but year after year he will try to do it and 
succeed only in getting poorer. The big farms of 
California have been the subject of much envious talk, 
but the class of California farmers, aside from capital- 
ists, that make most money is composed of men who 
have clustered in colonies, where scarcely a single 
estate exceeds forty acres. 

A great deal has been said and written concerning 
the rights of farmers' boys, but nothing about the girls. 
It is a common thing for farmers to pay their sons fair 
wages for their work ; yet the daughters do not 



CITY PEOPLE. 135 

receive a dollar from month to month. Why should 
the difference exist between the farmer's girl and boy? 
The former is quite as much entitled to a reward for 
services as the latter. In truth the farmer's girl fre- 
quently is the more valuable of the two. She is 
expected in many cases to arise very early, get break- 
fast, clean up the house, and prepare the other meals 
required through the day, or if not, to at least largely 
aid in all these household duties. In addition she is 
looked upon by father, mother and brother to enter- 
tain company, to act as hostess, at least as a creditable 
second to the mother. While she may be the pride of 
the family, and regarded as a sort of privileged 
character, yet much is expected of her in ten thousand 
smaller features of home life. Why, then, should she 
not be encouraged with at least as much pay as the 
boy ? In addition to that, the farm house should be as 
attractive as possible — with a piano, plenty of books, 
newspapers and pictures ; cultivate a taste in the girls 
for flowers, etc. These features, with a moderate 
amount of work, should produce a happy home-farm 
life. 



(gimY People. 

I bless God for cities. Cities have been as lamps 
of life along the pathway of humanity and religion ; 
within them science has given birth to her noblest dis- 
coveries. Behind their walls freedom has fought her 
noblest battles. They have stood on the surface of 



I36 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

the earth like great breakwaters, rolling back or turn- 
ing aside the swelling tide of oppression. Cities, 
indeed, have been the cradles of human liberty. They 
have been the active centers of almost all church and 
state reformation. Having, therefore, no sympathy 
with those who, regarding them as the excrescences of 
a tree, or the tumors of disease, would raze our cities 
to the ground, I bless God for cities. 

In cities where the competition in business and the 
professions is the greatest, it is coming to be more 
and more the rule that the successful men are those 
who are born and bred in the city, and thus start in the 
race for wealth and fame with every advantage. The 
boy from the country has generally two great advan- 
tages, robust health and industrious habits. But the 
city-bred boy may have these in just as great measure, 
and is sure to have the advantage in point of training 
and knowledge of the ways of the world. It takes 
his rival several years to reach the point from which 
he is able to start, other things being supposed to be 
equal. 

What these facts and figures teach is simply this: 
that a boy in city or in country, who is trained to 
work, who gets the discipline of will that comes with 
that training, has eighteen chances of succeeding in 
life, where the boy who has not had this training has 
one chance. 

They teach also, and this is the fact that I want 
you all to notice, that you cannot afford to go with the 
majority of your class, unless your class greatly 
changes its habits- that if you do about as the other 



CITY PEOPLE. 



7 



fellows of your class do, you will come out about 
where the other fellows of your class come out — and 
that is nowhere — crippled, beaten, distanced in the 
race of life. 

"We have seen," says the "Christian Advocate," 
"an ingenuous youth changed in three years into a 
profane, vulgar, licentious man, consumed by his vices 
and discharged for dishonesty." And theA the same 
goes on to say: "The larger portion of those who are 
coming now to our cities will be corrupted." 

Can this be true? Let each youth who has his 
face turned cityward, as his eye meets this, pause, 
before taking another step forward. But this need 
not be true as regards yourself if you choose it shall 
be otherwise. You can meet and grapple with the 
difficulties even of a city life, and come off conqueror. 
The encounter may be a sharp one, but there are 
props of a Christian community upon every hand; 
warm hearts waiting to welcome you if you seek 
them; churches with wide open doors, if you choose 
to take refuge in them. Free as the air you breathe 
are the benefits of this Christian land, if you but see 
fit to make them your own. The youth come to our 
cities and find an hundred hells waiting to receive 
them; but so, upon the other hand are hundreds of 
churches, and hundreds of Christian homes, and hearts 
warm and true by the thousands. When did a young 
soul seek for Christian sympathy — mind, we say seek 
— and fail to find it? With the windows of our soul 
open toward heaven, what wonder that the light falls 
in; but when we stand with those windows barred, 



I38 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

while the apertures toward the world and the devil are 
left unguarded, is it strange that Satan gets possession 
of us ? One cannot keep himself under the influence 
of the true things of life and not become benefited; 
neither can he handle pitch and not become contami- 
nated. But because pitch exists, does that make it 
necessary that you must become contaminated ? Leave 
it alone. Be a man, be an honest man — more, be a 
Christian man. Don't be afraid of mingling with the 
world. Go into its busiest scenes, and make them the 
better for your being there, and then as your soul 
grows strong by conflict, for so it must, feel assured 
that you are the better for being in the world — the 
great battle-field of life. 

" The oak grows stronger 
By the winds that toss its branches." 

No man need wail that he was not born in some 
other country. All lands have their attractions, and 
every home, however humble, has associated with it 
some pleasant recollections. The thatched stone cot- 
tage of old England or Ireland is ever a picturesque 
object to the American eye, and if it does not contain 
all the modern comforts of the smart American house, 
it is, doubtless, just as dear to those who were born 
beneath its roof. 

One-fifth of the American people are said to live 
in cities, they are town birds, acquainted with smoky 
eaves and tasting nature in the parks. Most of them 
come from the country, and when spring time comes, 
with its tender foliage, tranquil skies, soft breezes, 
birds and flowers, they must often turn to the woods 



CITY. PEOPLE. I39 

and fields with longing hearts and aching bosoms. 
We meet in the crowded street, the ill-ventilated 
theatre or the brilliant drawing-room, a though,t-worn 
face. The time was, if an English lad, when he may 
have been leaning against a cottage lintel in small 
corduroys, and hungrily eating a bit of brown bread 
and bacon. Perhaps he wishes he had a chance to do 
so again. 

Another man, no longer young, while wiping his 
brow and walking the hot pavements, thinks of the 
fair rounded hills, the blooming orchards, the merry 
river's bank, the field flowers, and the meadows of tall 
and cool grasses in his New England home. It is the 
summer time of life with him now, the burden of the 
day is upon him, and business cares give him little 
time for dreaming. The many anxieties of modern 
American life crush out much that is sweet and 
beautiful, leaving room, let us hope, for the good and 
wise in thought and action. 

When a young man sneers at the backwoods town, 
in which he was born, and its old-fashioned ways, 
he has lost the best part of his manhood. It is the 
ambition of many a city man to own a comfortable 
home some time in the country. Tortured with dis- 
pepsia and worry and work, the business man of the 
city dreams of a life of enjoyment in the sunny air of 
the country, and longs for the time to come when his 
hands and his face may be brown and his stomach 
strong ; his head clear and his nerves settled. 

In cities, people are brought up in total ignorance 
of, and blamable indifference for, country affairs ; they 



I4O WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

can scarce distinguish flax from hemp, wheat from rye, 
and neither from barley ; eating, drinking and dress- 
ing are their qualifications ; pastures, copses, after- 
grass, inning harvest, are Gothic words to them. If 
to some of them you talk of weights, scales, measures, 
interest and books of rates, to others of appeals, peti- 
tions, decrees and injunctions, they will prick up their 
ears. They pretend to know the world, and, though 
it is more safe and commendable, are ignorant of 
nature, her beginnings, growths, gifts and bounties. 
This ignorance is often voluntary, and founded on the 
conceit they have of their own callings and professions. 

We close this subject with the following quotation 
from Mr. Spurgeon: 

"I have heard tell of a man who did not know a 
great A from a bull's foot, and I know a good many 
who certainly could not tell what great A or little A 
either may mean ; but some of these people are not 
the most ignorant in the world, for all that. For 
instance, they know a cow's head from its tail, and one 
of the election gentleman said lately that the candidate 
from London did not know that. They know that 
turnips don't grow on trees, and they can tell a man- 
gold-wurzel from a beet- root, and a rabbit from a hare, 
and there are fine folk who play on the pianos who 
hardly know as much as that. If they cannot read 
they can plow, and mow, and reap, and sow, and bring 
up seven children on ten shillings a week, and yet pay 
their way; and there's a sight of people who are much 
too ignorant to do that. Ignorance of spelling-books 
is very bad, but ignorance of hard work is worse. 



FRIENDS IN NEED. I4I 

Wisdom does not always speak Latin. People laugh 
at smock frocks, and indeed they are about as ugly 
garments as could well be contrived, but some who 
wear them are not half such fools as people take them 
for. If no ignorant people ate bread but those who 
wear hobnail shoes, corn would be a fine deal cheaper. 
Wisdom in a poor man is like a diamond set in lead, 
only judges can see its value. Wisdom walks often in 
patched shoes, and men admire her not, but, I say, 
never mind the coat, give me the man; nut-shells are 
nothing, the kernel is everything. You need not go to 
Pirbright to find ignoramuses, there are heaps of them 
near St. Paul's." 



Friends In Heed. 

" The man who has a thousand friends, 
Has not a friend to spare ; 
But he who has one enemy, 
Will meet him everywhere." 

Friendship is a delightful theme. Philosophers 
have expatiated on it, and poets have caught its 
inspiration, while multitudes, neither philosophers nor 
poets, have felt its soothing influence. Who, in times 
of joy, has not taken pleasure in communicating his 
joyous emotions to a friend ? And who, in the hour 
of sorrow, has not alleviated his grief by telling his 
tale of sadness to a friend? Thus friendship 
increases joy and diminishes sorrow. 

Without friends, what is a man? A solitary oak 
upon a sterile rock, symmetrical indeed in its form, 



H 2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

beautiful and exquisitely finished, outrivaling the most 
lauded perfection of art in gracefulness and grandeur, 
but over which decay has shaken her black wing and 
left its leaves blighted ; its limbs contract as they die ; 
its roots rottenness, and its bloom death ; a scathed, 
lifeless monument of its pristine beauty. When the 
rebuffs of adversity are crushing us earthward — 
when the clouds look black above, and the muttering 
thunder of misfortune growls along the sky — when 
our frame is palsied by the skeleton hand of disease, 
or our senses whirled in the maelstrom chaos of insan- 
ity — when our hearts are torn by the recent separa- 
tion of some beloved object, while our tears are yet 
flowing upon the fresh turf of departed innocence — 
in that time it is the office of friendship to shield us 
from portentous storms, to quicken the fainting pulses 
of our sickly frame, to bring back the wandering star 
of mind within the attraction of sympathetic kindness, 
to pour the "oil and wine" of peace into the yet fester- 
ing wound, and deliver the aching heart from the object 
of its bleeding affection. 

When a man thinks nobody cares for him, and he 
is alone in a cold and selfish world, he would do well 
to ask himself this question : " What have I done to 
make anybody care for and love me, to warm the 
world with faith and generosity ? " It is generally the 
case that those who complain the most have done the 
least. Never is virtue left without sympathy, — sym- 
pathy dearer and tenderer for the misfortunes that 
have tried it, and proved its fidelity. 

The yearning of an honest heart for kind looks 



FRIENDS IN NEED. 1 43 

and gentle words is implanted by nature. And the 
gentle associations of home, where at the close of the 
day we may meet our loved ones, gives the riearest 
approach to Heaven upon earth that is vouchsafed to 
mortals. But to the gentle youth that is thrown upon 
the rocks of a pitiless city, and stands " homeless amid 
a thousand homes," the approach of evening brings 
with it an aching sense of loneliness and desolation, 
which comes down upon the spirit like darkness upon 
the earth. In this mood, his best impulses become a 
snare to him, and he is led astray because he is social, 
affectionate, sympathetic and warm-hearted. If there 
be a young man thus circumstanced, who reads these 
pages, let me say to him, that books are the friends in 
your need, and that a library is the home in which you 
have free entrance. 

Help one another. This little sentence should be 
written on every heart and stamped on every memory. 
It should be the golden rule practiced not only in every 
household, but throughout the world. By helping one 
another we not only remove thorns from the pathway 
and anxiety from the mind, but we feel a sense of 
pleasure in our own hearts, knowing that we are doing 
a duty to a fellow creature. 

A helping hand or an encouraging word is no loss 
to us, yet it is a benefit to others. Who has not felt 
the power of this little sentence? Who has not 
needed the encouragement and aid of a kind friend? 
How soothing, wKen perplexed with some task that is 
mysterious and burdensome, to feel a gentle hand on 
the shoulder, and to hear a kind voice whispering, 



144 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

" Do not be discouraged ; I see your trouble ; let me 
help you." What strength is inspired ! what hope 
created! what sweet gratitude is felt! and the great 
difficulty is dissolved as dew beneath the sunshine. 

Then let us help one another by endeavoring to 
strengthen and encourage the weak, and lift the burden 
of care from the weary and oppressed, that life may 
glide smoothly on, and the fount of bitterness yield 
sweet waters ; and He whose hand is ever ready to aid 
us will reward our humble endeavors. Every good 
deed will be as " bread cast upon the waters, to return 
after many days," if not to us, to those we love. 

There is no life so humble that, if it be true and 
genuinely human and obedient to God, it may not hope 
to shed some of his light. There is no life so meagre 
that the greatest and wisest of us can afford to despise 
it. We cannot know at what moment it may flash 
forth with the life of God. 

One thread of kindness draws more than a hun- 
dred horses. 

Our kind acts may seem to be in vain; but, as the 
dormant seeds waken in the spring-time, so they shall 
bud, blossom and bear abundant fruitage in God's own 
time. 

Every one will remember the story of Androcles 
and the lion. Androcles had hid himself in a cave 
when he saw a lion approaching. He feared that he 
should be devoured. But the lion was limping, and 
appeared to be in great pain. Androcles approached 
with courage, took up the lion's paw, and took out a 
large splinter of wood which had caused the flesh to 



FRIENDS IN NEED. 145 

fester. The lion was most grateful, and fawned upon 
him. Afterward, when Androcles was taken prisoner 
and sent to Rome to be delivered up to the wild 
beasts, a lion was let loose to devour him. It was the 
same lion that Androcles had relieved in his agony. 
The animal remembered with gratitude his deliverer, 
and, instead of devouring him, went up and fawned 
upon him. Appian declares that he witnessed with his 
own eyes the scene between Androcles and the lion in 
the Roman circus. 

A good man will find friends everywhere. Joseph 
did in prison. So the prisoner Paul found a friend in 
the governor of the island. There is no better capital 
for a young man entering life than a faithful, though 
modest, Christian character. Even the noblest in 
rank respect such a man, and he finds friends. 

Friendship is, strictly speaking, reciprocal benevo- 
lence, which inclines each party to be as solicitous for 
the welfare of the other as for his own. 

Friends may cheer us in our suffering. If they 
can do nothing to relieve our pain, their presence and 
consoling words may help us bear it. 

In adversity and difficulties arm yourself with firm- 
ness and fortitude. The firmest friendships have been 
formed in mutual adversity, as iron is most strongly 
welded by the fiercest fire. Be what you seem to be, 
and seem to be only what you are. 

Choose your friends, and do not merely take up 
with whoever drifts up against you. In a great 
measure our thoughts and aims receive their color- 
ing from the ones around us, and it is our duty to 
10 



I46 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

place, as far as in our power lies, those near to us that 
will prove of help. 

Among the various forms of Christian duty, that of 
sympathetic listening- is certainly entitled to a high 
rank. The helping hand and the kindly word are 
both needed, and should never be spared; but there 
are times when the listening ear is more needed than 
either of them. There are men and women in the 
world who feel most keenly the lack of some wise and 
gentle and heartful person to whom they can simply 
tell their grief or their joy; and for lack of such a 
listener they endure deep suffering, or perhaps fall into 
actual sin. To listen wisely is no easy task, nor is it 
to be lightly undertaken; but it is not to be avoided 
on that account; and sometimes it may be the first 
duty which calls upon us. 



Discretion. 

Fortune often sells to the hasty what she gives to 
those who wait. Bacon says, "Fortune is like the 
market, when, many times, if you can stay a little, 
the price will fall ; and again, it is sometimes like 
Sibylla's offer, which at first offereth the commodity at 
full, then consumeth part and part, and still holdeth up 
the price ; for occasion turneth a bald noddle after she 
hath presented her locks in front, and no hold taken." 
There is certainly no greater wisdom than well to time 
the beginnings and onsets of things. 



DISCRETION. 1 47 

If we but saw how the gates of opportunity open 
and close ; how the possibilities of to-day neglected 
become to-morrow the things which never can be 
done; how unused strength wastes away and brings 
up behind it no other strengths; how the grace that 
lies about all our occasions, ready to flow upon them 
at the touches of our diligence, slighted, lifts itself up 
into the heavens and leaves us in hardness and 
death; how on the other hand, when used it drops 
upon us like the rain and distills like the dew ; how 
work done makes work easier; how the voluntary use 
of " all that is within us " and without us, too, of soul 
and sinew, of love and thought, of time and strength, 
and hours of prayer, will bring upon us the gentle 
pressures of God's newest, freshest grace ; — if we but 
saw such things as these what girdings there would be 
among us. 

The man who by some sudden revolution of for- 
tune is lifted up all at once into a condition of life 
greatly above what he had formerly lived in, may be 
assured that the congratulations of his best friends are 
not all of them perfectly sincere. If he has any judg- 
ment, he is sensible of this, and instead of appearing 
to be elated with his good fortune, he endeavors, as 
much as he can, to smother his joy, and keep down 
that elevation of mind with which his new circum- 
stances naturally inspire him. He affects the same 
plainness of dress, and the same modesty of behavior, 
which became him in his former station. He redoubles 
his attention to his old friends, and endeavors more 
than ever to be humble, assiduous, and complaisant. 



I48 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

But it is seldom with all this that he succeeds, and 
that man is a model of discretion who retains uni- 
versal approval under such circumstances. 

Pleasure is a shadow, wealth is vanity, and power 
a pageant; but knowledge is ecstatic in enjoyment, 
perennial in fame, unlimited in space, and infinite in 
duration. In the performance of its sacred offices it 
fears no danger, spares no expense; it looks in the 
volcano, dives in the ocean, perforates the earth, wings 
its flight in the skies, explores sea and land, contem- 
plates the distance, examines the minute, comprehends 
the great, ascends to the sublime ; no place is too 
remote for its grasp, no height too exalted for its 
reach. 

There are many who never can forgive another for 
being more agreeable and more accomplished than 
themselves, and who can pardon any offense rather 
than an eclipsing merit. Had the nightingale, in the 
fable, conquered his vanity and resisted the tempta- 
tion of showing a fine voice, he might have escaped 
the talons of the hawk. The melody of his singing 
was the cause of his destruction; his merit brought 
him into danger, and his vanity cost him his life. 

Of all the qualifications for conversation, humility, 
if not the most brilliant, is the safest, the most amiable 
and the most feminine. The affectation of introduc- 
ing subjects with which others are unacquainted, and 
of displaying talents superior to the rest of the com- 
pany, is as dangerous as it is foolish. 

It is a great mistake to suppose that the man who 
volunteers answers to all sorts of questions knows 



DISCRETION. I49 

what he is talking about. A strange fatality seems 
often to seal the lips of those who really know how to 
do things. But this is not so strange to us as the un- 
failing eloquence of those who do not know how to do 
anything. 

It is generally safe to converse freely with an unre- 
served talker; but when a man lets you carry on all 
the conversation, it is well to be on your guard, for 
the probability is, he is taking your measure. Cheer- 
fulness is always to be kept up, if a man is out of 
pain ; but mirth, to a prudent man, should always be 
accidental. It should naturally arise out of the occa- 
sion, and the occasion seldom laid for it. 

You will not be sorry for hearing before judging, 
for thinking before speaking, for holding an angry 
tongue, for stopping the ear to a tale-bearer, for disbe- 
lieving most of the ill reports, for being kind to the 
distressed, for being patient towards everybody, for 
doing good to all men, for asking pardon for all 
wrongs, for speaking evil of no one, for being cour- 
teous to all. 

True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the 
body nourishment and refreshment. It is a great vir- 
tue ; it covers folly, keeps secrets, avoids disputes, 
and prevents sin. 

Soar not too high to fall, but stoop to rise. Among 
the breakers is not the place to dismiss the pilot. If 
there is any person to whom you feel a dislike, that is 
the person of whom you ought never to speak. There 
is this difference between happiness and wisdom, he 
who thinks himself the happiest man really is so, but 



I50 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

he who thinks himself the wisest is generally just the 
reverse. Like every other faculty, imagination needs 
wise direction and vigorous culture; and if it receives 
this treatment, it will put a vital and energetic force 
into every part of life, and give a new impetus to the 
most practical of its realities. 

"We must be cautious as to the thoughts we think. 
The scenes amidst which we dwell in fancy give form 
to our characters as truly as those through which we 
pass in bodily presence. The images with which the 
mind holds converse may uplift or degrade as truly as 
companions in bodily form. A thought may scar the 
soul as a weapon leaves its mark on the flesh. The 
fact that our imaginations are so closely akin to reali- 
ties, is a reason why they should be guarded and 
controlled. !Not even in thought must we mingle with 
the base and the impure. He only shall ascend into 
the hill of the Lord who hath clean hands and a 
pure hearty 

Painstaking. 

The incalculable aid of an educated, painstaking 
habit, in the furthering of one's fortunes, can hardly 
be appreciated. The painstaking, accurate person 
will comprehend at a glance the details of work that 
to the dullard is an inextricable tangle. Little things 
are noticed, little scraps picked up, little notes made 
here and there, where others would pass them all by 
unnoticed and uncared for, but at the right time it all 



PAINSTAKING. I 5 I 

comes of orood use. One man would run on to dis- 
cs 

aster and defeat, where the other, grasping the situation 
at a glance, straightens the kinks, and produces suc- 
cess. 

There was once a young man in a western railway 
superintendent's office. He held a position that four 
hundred boys in the city would have wished to get. 
It was honorable, and it paid well, besides being in the 
line of promotion. How did he get it ? Not by having 
a rich father, for he was the son of a laborer. The 
secret was his accuracy. He began as an errand boy, 
and did his work accurately. His leisure time he used 
in perfecting his writing and arithmetic. After awhile 
he learned to telegraph. At each step his employer 
commended his accuracy, and relied on what he did, 
because he was just right. 

And it is thus with every occupation. The pains- 
taking boy is the favored one. Those who employ 
men do not wish to be on the lookout, as though they 
were rogues or fools. If a carpenter must stand at 
his journeyman's elbow to be sure that his work is 
right, or if a cashier must run over his book-keeper's 
column, he might as well do the work himself as 
employ another to do it in that way ; and it is very 
certain that the employer will get rid of such an inac- 
curate workman as soon as he can. 

A boy took out his knife to cut the twine about a 
package, in a large store. " Stop ! " said his employer. 
" Do you see that man behind the counter up there ? 
He is now working for me as a clerk, when he ought 
to own a store of his own like this one, and it is all 



152 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

because he always cut the strings instead of untying 
them. I want you to have a store of your own some 
day, and so I want you to untie your strings, and take 
pains with every little thing, until it becomes a habit 
with you. It will be the means of making your for- 
tune." 

It is not enough for One to be able or willing to 
supply the things that others need. They must be 
made acquainted with the fact; and the valuable 
qualities of these things must be set before them. 
Nor, on the other hand, is it enough for one to need 
what others can furnish; he must know that the thing 
can be obtained, and where he can obtain it. Pro- 
ducers and consumers must be made acquainted with 
each other's wants and facilities for supplying their 
wants. Don't be afraid to talk and ask questions, 
when there is good reason for doing so. Gather up 
items and facts and lay them up in your memory ; they 
will be of use to you some day. 

Daniel Webster once told a good story in a speech, 
and was asked where he got it. 

"I had it laid up in my head for iourteen years, and 
never had a chance to use it until to-day," said he. 

My little friend wants to know what good it will do 
to learn the rule of three, or to commit to memory a 
verse of the Bible. The answer is this: "Sometime 
you will need that very thing. Perhaps it may be 
twenty years before you can make use of it in just the 
right place, but it will be just in place sometime. Then, 
if you don't have it, you will be like the hunter who 
had no ball in his rifle when the bear met him." 



PAINSTAKING. 153 

" Twenty-five years ago my teacher made me study 
surveying," said a man who had lost his property, 
" and now I am glad of it. It is just in place. I can 
get a good situation at a high salary." The Bible is 
better than that. It will be in place as long as we live. 

It never pays to be a poor workman. If you are a 
young man, aim to do honest work, and, although your 
present employer may not be willing to pay any more 
for a well-made coat or a neatly-finished boot than he 
would for a botch, don't be discouraged. If you are a 
carpenter, make the best joint you can; if you are a 
machinist, see that every bolt and rivet is as firm as if 
your life depended upon its properly fulfilling its duties. 
How carefully the aeronaut examines his balloon, the 
tight rope performer his rope, before he trusts his life 
to it. Would a shipbuilder take passage on a vessel 
of his own building if he knew that he had willfully 
neglected or slighted any essential part of her hull ? 

Yet many a young mechanic has destroyed his own 
future and committed moral suicide by sending forth a 
poor piece of work. The old surgical professor's cau- 
tion to a young medical student is not inapt here. 
Said he, " If you are ever called to set a broken leg, 
and your work is a failure, and the man becomes a 
cripple, you may be sure he will always come limping 
along just at the wrong time, when you are surrounded 
by your clients and friends. He is a walking adver- 
tisement of your incapacity." 

The path of fame by honest merit is a slow and 
tedious one. A manufacturer who is so careful about 
his products that he has to put a higher price on them 



154 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

than his less conscientious neighbor can sell for, may 
be repaid at first by small sales and smaller profits. 
It takes a long time to build up a reputation by excel- 
lence ; but once acquired, its value cannot be esti- 
mated. 

Remember that the secret studies of an author are 
the sunken piers upon which is to rest the bridge of 
his fame, spanning the dark waters of oblivion. They 
are out of sight, but without them no superstructure 
can stand secure. " Never mistake perspiration for 
inspiration," said an old minister in his charge to a 
young minister just being ordained. Sweetest nuts 
have hardest shells. Said Luther: "The greatest 
temptation the devil has for the Christian is comfort." 
More hearts are made to ache through thoughtless- 
ness than through downright wickedness. Be careful 
of others. 

The German sculptor Dannecker worked for eight 
years upon a statue of Christ. At the end of two 
years he called a little girl into his studio, and pointing 
to the statue asked, "Who is that?" She replied, "A 
great man." The artist turned away disheartened; he 
had failed. He began anew. After another year of 
patient work he brought the child again before the 
statue. "Who is that?" After a long, silent look, 
with tears in her eyes she said, " Suffer the little chil- 
dren to come unto me." And he knew that his work 
was a success. If you have talents, industry will 
improve them ; if you have moderate abilities, industry 
will supply the deficiencies. Nothing is denied to well- 
directed labor; nothing is ever obtained without it. 



FROM THE RANKS. I 55 

That which we acquire with the most difficulty we 
retain the longest; as those who have earned a fortune 
are usually more careful of it than those who have 
inherited one. Samuel Johnson says that " interest is 
the mother of attention;" but attention is the mother 
of memory. To secure memory, therefore, secure its 
mother and grandmother. It is a very common and 
fatal error to neglect this grandparent. When one is 
absorbingly interested in a theme the mind becomes 
strangely receptive, and draws to itself, as a magnet 
gathers up iron filings, all information within its reach 
as to the topic in hand. 



-iH- 



Fl^OM THE J^ANI^S. 

Examples are occurring every day, in all the de- 
partments of useful exertion, of men who, by dint of 
self help and native energy, have sprung from obscur- 
ity into shining lights, and whose names, now that 
they are known, the world will not willingly let die. 
Who was the late John Snyder, of Pittsburg, the well- 
known cashier of a bank in that city, a man whose 
name for long years was a synonym for commercial 
honor, promptness, probity and zeal? A wagoner. 
Who was the late Thos. Corwin, of Ohio, ex-Gover- 
nor, ex-Senator, and ex-Secretary of the Cabinet of 
President Harrison? A wagoner. And so we might go 
on to cull from our single memory alone example up- 
on example of men who, like the spider, have taken 



156 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

hold with their hands, but who, long before their day 
was ended, or their web spun, were living in palaces 
that a king might envy. 

The very nobility of Christian literature have 
sprung from the lowest walks of life. Thomas H. 
Home, author of the "Introduction to the Bible," was 
once a journeyman bookbinder; and Whitefield, the 
Demosthenes of the pulpit, was once a poor boot- 
black in the University of Oxford. Indeed almost all the 
great men who have done so much for the advance- 
ment of science and the amelioration of mankind, 
were in early life engaged in some manual employ- 
ment. 

John Bunyan was a tinker, and miserably poor. 
Zwingle came forth from an Alpine shepherd's cabin. 
Melancthon from an armorer's workshop ; Luther from 
a miner's cottage ; the apostles, some of them, from 
fishermen's huts. And to the industrious and the 
humble come ever the greatest of blessings. Only 
the earnest heart can receive a great blessing; flabby 
natures cannot know the highest joys nor the keenest 
pleasures, for there is nothing within them to receive 
great blessedness. 

Andrew Jackson was born in a log hut in North 
Carolina, and was raised in the pine woods for which 
the state is famous. James K. Polk spent the earlier 
years of his life helping to dig a living out of a new farm 
in North Carolina. He was afterwards a clerk in a 
country store. Millard Fillmore was the son of a 
New York farmer, and his house was a very humble 
one. He learned the business of clothier. 



FROM THE RANKS. I 57 

James Buchanan was born in a small town among 
the Alleghany mountains. His father cut the logs and 
built his own house in what was then a wilderness. 
Abraham Lincoln was the son of a very poor Ken- 
tucky farmer, and lived in a log cabin until he was 
twenty-one years of age. Andrew Johnson was ap- 
prenticed to a tailor at the age of ten years by his 
widowed mother. He was never able to attend school, 
and picked up all the education he ever got. Gen. 
Grant lived the life of a common boy in a common 
house on the banks of the Ohio river until he was sev- 
enteen years of age. James A. Garfield was born in 
a log cabin. He worked on the farm until the time he 
was strong enough to use carpenters' tools, when he 
learned the trade. He afterwards worked on the 
canal. Henry Clay was taught the rudiments of 
education in a log school-house, between his fifth and 
tenth years, and at the age of fifteen he entered the 
office of clerk of the chancery court. 

Cornelius Vanderbilt began life with an old pirogue 
running between Staten Island and New York city, 
carrying garden stuff to market. With two or three 
thousand dollars raised from that source he entered 
upon steadily increasing enterprises, until he amassed 
the enormous sum of fifty million dollars. A. T. 
Stewart first bought a few laces at auction, and opened 
his way to success in a dingy little shop in Broad- 
way, near the site of his present wholesale establish- 
ment. Years of rigid honesty, shrewd management, 
and wisdom in things both great and small, made 
him the monument merchant of the nineteenth century. 



158 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

George Law, at forty-five years 01 age, was a com- 
mon day laborer on the docks, and at present counts 
his fortune at something like ten million dollars. 
Robert L. and Alexander Stewart, the sugar refiners, 
in their boyhood sold molasses candy which their 
widowed mother had made, at a cent a stick, and 
to-day they are worth probably five to six million 
dollars apiece. Marshal O. Roberts is the possessor 
of four or five million dollars, and yet until he was 
twenty-five he did not have one hundred dollars he 
could call his own. H. B. Claflin, the eminent dry 
goods merchant, worth, it is estimated, from ten to 
fifteen million dollars, commenced the world with 
nothing but energy, determination and hope. 

" Labor conquers all things." Metastasio, a 
friendless street singer, became one of the greatest 
authors in Italian literature. Gifford, a cabin boy, 
became one of the most powerful writers of his age. 
Epictetus, born a slave, became the boast of the Stoic 
philosophers, and was intimate with the best Roman 
emperors. Ferguson, a shepherd boy, became a lead- 
ing astronomer, to whose lectures royalty listened. 
Murray, another shepherd boy, became a prominent 
instructor. Brown, still another shepherd boy, became 
author of a Bible commentary, concordance and dic- 
tionary. Terence, an African slave, elevated himself 
to the society and fellowship of Roman consuls. 
Franklin, bred a tradesman, became a leader in " the 
art preservative of all arts" (printing). Sir Hum- 
phrey Davy, an apothecary's apprentice, became the 
first chemist of his time. Roger Shermar a shoe- 



FROM THE RANKS. I 59 

maker, became a statesman in the American Revolu- 
tion. Samuel Lee, a carpenter, became professor of 
Hebrew in Cambridge University. Adam Clarke, 
reared in a country school, rose to be one of the first 
Biblical scholars of modern times. Robert Hall, a very 
poor boy, became a leading preacher and writer in 
England. Cuvier, a charity school boy, became a 
prominent modern naturalist. Prideaux, who worked 
in the kitchen of Exeter College in order to obtain a 
classical education, became Bishop of Worcester. 
" Out of difficulties grow miracles/' 

One hundred and twenty-five years ago John 
Adams, school teacher — afterwards President — sat in 
his chamber at Worcester and wrote: "I have no 
books, no time, no friends. I must therefore be con- 
tented to live and die an obscure, ignorant fellow." 
Why be discouraged ! 

Herschel, a regular in the British army, studied the 
firmament while on sentry duty at night, and became ' 
a great astronomer, and afterwards earned his living 
by playing a violin at parties, and in the interstices of 
the play he would go out and look up at the midnight 
heavens, the field of his immortal conquests. George 
Stephenson rose from being the foreman in a colliery 
to be the most renowned of the world's engineers. 

When David Livingston was a boy, he was obliged 
to be at the mills by six o'clock every morning, and 
he did not leave until eight o'clock in the evening. 
When he received his first week's pay, he forthwith 
purchased a Latin grammar with a portion of it, and 
within a very short time joined an evening school. 



l6o WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

In eany life Francis Wayland had to struggle 
against many difficulties and discouragements, such as 
would have broken the spirits and crushed the hopes 
of the irresolute and feeble, but which only roused 
him to diligent and persevering effort. To-day his 
writings are everywhere known, and his text-books 
are standards in some of the leading schools and col- 
leges of the land. 

The career of Peter Cooper may be cited in many 
aspects as an illustration of the beneficent effect of 
American institutions; and it is well for us to be 
reminded occasionally, in the midst of our conflicts 
with abuses, and our endeavors at reform, which tend 
to breed a spirit of cynicism or despondency, that the 
possibility of such a career among us is a testimony 
to the value and substantial success of free govern- 
ment, outweighing all its defects and dangers. When 
we read that Peter Cooper, during his active life, 
learned and practiced the trade of a hatter, then served 
his time as apprentice to a coach maker, then set up 
the manufacture of cloth shearing machines, invented 
by himself, then engaged in the grocery business, then 
established in succession a glue factory and several 
iron-works, we realize that such a record of manifold 
enterprise would scarcely be possible under any other 
political and social system than ours. The story is all 
the more significant because it does not include bank- 
ruptcy or business failure as a factor of change. It is 
simply the narration of quick perception, and sanguine, 
unconquerable courage, freely choosing and boldly 
pursuing the path that promises legitimate advantage. 



FROM THE RANKS. l6l 

It is almost impossible to speak of any renowned 
for eminence who have not been compelled to strug- 
gle under great difficulties, and only by their persever- 
ing efforts have they raised themselves from the ranks 
of those who were contented to remain in humble life ; 
or at least unwilling to undergo the hardships neces- 
sary to raise them above their natural level. Emily 
C. Judson used to rise at two in the morning and do 
the washing for the family. Gambetta was poor and 
slept in an attic. Lucy Larcom was a factory girl. 
Dr. Holland was poor and a school teacher. Cap- 
tain Eades was barefoot and penniless at nine years old. 
None of these people have been idle or whiled away 
their time on street corners, or in games of cards or 
billiards. They were too busy. 

So, in every case, where there are high and right 
aims, and a resolute will, and diligent perseverance, 
let the young remember that they may, in the end, 
surely expect success. It may not come at once ; for, 
as Montesquieu tells us, "Success, in most things, de- 
pends on knowing how long it takes to succeed," or, 
as DeMaistre says, "in knowing how to wait." A well 
known governor of Massachusetts ran for the office 
sixteen successive years in vain, but at last obtained it 
by a single vote. Von Moltke was unknown to the 
world until he was sixty-one years of age; and the 
immortal Havelock did not gain a name in history till 
but a few years before his death. But though it may 
not be at once, yet in the end success will come, 

always in the conscious possession of a high and noble 
11 



I 62 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

character, and generally, also, to the eye of the world, 
and in the estimation of men. "Resolution," says one, 
"is omnipotent." 

/ 



Duty of (Dating CQonby. 

We believe the winning of wealth to be a per- 
fectly legitimate pursuit. Wealth has great and benefi- 
cent uses* and the world would go very slowly if 
money could not be accumulated in wise and enter- 
prising hands ; but wealth may be used to make all 
men near it prosperous and happy, or it may be used 
to make them poor and miserable. When a rich man 
is only excited by his wealth with the desire to be 
richer, and goes on to exact larger profits and to grind 
the faces of the poor, in order that he may be super- 
fluously rich, he becomes inhuman and unchristian. 
The Christian use of wealth is what we need in this 
country and in all countries. It is not that wealth does 
not give in charity. It is not that wealth is not suffi- 
ciently taxed for the support of those who are wrecked 
in health or fortune, but it is that it does not give the 
people a chance to escape from poverty; that it does not 
share its chances with the poor, and point the pathway 
for the poor toward prosperity. As a rule, wealth is 
only brotherly towards wealth, and the poor man feels 
himself cut off from sympathy with those who have the 
power of winning money. 

We may rest assured of one thing, namely, that 
the poor in the future will insist on being recognized. 



DUTY OF MAKING MONEY. 1 63 

If they are not recognized — if they are ignored in the 
mad greed for wealth at any cost to them — they will 
make the future a trouble and terrible one for our 
children and our children's children. 

It is right to seek wealth, provided you do so with 
the purpose of serving God with it. A man may be 
as miserly being poor as being rich. There is no sin 
in being rich, in itself considered; there is no virtue in 
being poor. Consecrate yourself to God, be honest, 
and seek wealth; then, if it comes, make a noble use 
of it. We need rich men in the church. We need 
such men to build our colleges and churches. By 
doing good with his money, a man as it were stamps 
the image of God upon it, and makes it pass current 
for the merchandise of heaven. 

John Wesley says, "Get all you can, save all you 
can, give all you can. Permit me to speak of myself 
as freely as I would of any other man. I gain all I can 
without hurting my body or soul. I save all I can ; 
not wasting anything, not a sheet of paper, nor a cup 
of water. I do not lay out anything, not a snilling, 
unless a sacrifice for God; yet, by giving all I can, I 
am effectually secured from laying up treasures upon 
earth. Yea, and that I do this, I call upon both friends 
and foes to testify." 

The way to keep money is to earn it fairly and 
honestly. Money so obtained is pretty certain to 
abide with its possessor. But money that is inherited, 
or that in any way comes without a fair and just equiv- 
alent, is almost certain to go as it came. The young 
man who begins by saving a few dollars a month and 



164 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

thriftily increases his store — every coin being a repre- 
sentative of good, solid work, honestly and manfully 
done — stands a better chance to spend the last half of 
his life in affluence and comfort than he who, in his 
haste to become rich, obtains money by dashing spec- 
ulations, or the devious means which abound in the 
foggy regions lying between fair dealing and actual 
fraud. Among the wisest and most thrifty men of 
wealth, the current proverb is "money goes as it 
comes." Let the young make a note of this, and see 
that their money comes fairly, that it may long abide 
with them. 

If the poor-house has any terror for you, never 
buy what you don't need ; before you pay three cents 
for a jews'-harp, my boy, ascertain whether you cannot 
make just as .pleasant a noise by whistling, for which 
nature furnishes the machinery ; and before you pay 
seventy-five dollars for a coat, young man, find out 
whether your lady would not be just as glad to see 
you in one that costs half the money. If she would 
not, let her crack her own hazel-nuts and buy her own 
clothes. 

When you see a man spending two or three dol- 
lars a week foolishly, the chances are five to one that 
he will live long enough to know how many cents 
there are in a dollar; if he don't, he's pretty sure to 
bequeath that privilege to his widow. When a man 
asks you to buy that for which you have no use, no 
matter how cheap it is, don't say yes until you are sure 
that some one else wants it in advance. Money burns 
in some folks' pockets, and makes such a big hole that 



DUTY OF MAKING MONEY. 1 65 

everything that is put in drops through past finding. 

Keep your weather eye open. Sleeping poultry are 
carried of! by the fox. Who watches not catches not. 
Fools ask what's o'clock, but wise men know their 
time. Grind while the wind blows, or if not do not 
blame providence. God sends every bird its food, but 
he does not throw it into the nest ; he gives us our 
daily bread, but it is through our own labor. Take 
time by the forelock. Be up early and catch the worm. 
The morning hour carries gold in its mouth. He who 
drives last in the row gets all the dust in his eyes : rise 
early, and you will have a clear start for the day. 

I only want to say, do not be greedy, for covetous- 
ness is always poor ; still, strive to get on, for poverty 
is no virtue, and to rise in the world is to a man's 
credit as well as his comfort. Earn all you can, save 
all you can, and then give all you can. Never try to 
save out of God's cause ; such money will canker the 
rest. Giving to God is no loss; it is putting your sub- 
stance into the best bank. Giving is true having, as 
the old gravestone said of the dead man, " What I 
spent I had, what I saved I lost, what I gave I have." 
The pockets of the poor are safe lockers, and it is 
always a good investment to lend to the Lord. 

A saving woman at the head of a family is the very 
best savings bank established. The idea of saving is 
a pleasant one ; and if the women imbibed it at once, 
they would cultivate it and adhere to it ; and thus 
when they are not aware of it they would be laying 
the foundation of a competent security in a stormy 
time, and shelter in a rainy day. The best way to 



I 66 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

comprehend it is to keep an account of all current 
expenses. Whether five hundred or five thousand 
dollars are expended annually, there is a chance to 
save something if the effort is made. Let the house- 
wife take the idea, act upon it, and she will save some- 
thing where before she thought it impossible. This is 
a duty, yet not a sordid avarice but a mere obligation, 
that rests upon women as well as men. 

Activity is essential to man. The great Creator 
has made it a law of our being, physical, mental and 
moral. He designed that all our faculties should be 
diligently employed, and has given us rules of life 
corresponding with this design. The sluggard, in the 
Scriptures, is constantly denounced, and the diligent 
man is constantly commended. Obedience to the 
law of industry would improve the state of human 
society in every respect, and make man comparatively 
happy. It is not creditable to be satisfied with the 
results of a limited activity. Large natures have 
usually large desires, and only small are satisfied with 
small. 

Some who have grown up strangers to any useful 
employment put forth their first efforts to familiarize 
themselves with the tricks of something they call 
speculation, but if properly named would be called 
systematic stealing, or it may be legal theft, — carried 
on in a manner to evade the law — a process by which 
honestly gained wealth is filched from its less wary 
owner, and put into the pocket of a lounging trickster. 
Akin to these are those who study politics for its 
loaves and fishes, or worm their way into some muni- 



SECRETS OF SUCCESS. l6j 

cipal office, to the expense of every trust that may fall 
into their hands — anything but honest industry, for 
to that they are strangers, and always will be. 

Why not do business in the name of the Lord, and 
in reliance upon his strength and guidance, just as we 
perform our more direct religious duties? Then could 
we endure the toil and perplexities of business, under 
the support of a consciousness of its importance, the 
same as though we were missionaries among the 
heathen, or doing any other work connected with the 
eternal interests of men. How men in our country, 
with but a part of their surplus annual income, might 
build a church or churches, or support a missionary, or 
several of them, in heathen lands ! If they had a heart 
for such work, how they might enjoy it, and how cer- 
tainly multitudes would arise and call them blessed! 
And it might be said to them in the last day, " Inas- 
much as ye did it to one of these my brethren, ye did 
it unto me." 

Secrets of Success. 

The busy world shoves angrily aside 

The man who stands with arms akimbo set 

Until occasion tells him what to do ; 

And he who waits to have his task marked out 

Shall die and leave his errand unfulfilled. 

Prosperity's right hand is industry, and her left hand is frugality. 

Perseverance is the great agent of success. 

" If you wish success in life, make perseverance your 
bosom friend, experience your wise counsellor, caution 
your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius." 



1 68 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

Every man must patiently abide his time. He 
must wait, not in idleness, not in useless pastime, not 
in querulous dejection, but in constantly, steadily, filling 
and accomplishing his task, that when the occasion 
comes he may be equal to it. The talent of success is 
nothing more than doing what you can do well, without 
a thought of fame. If it comes at all, it will come 
because it is deserved, not because it is sought after. 
It is a very indiscreet and troublesome ambition which 
cares so much about what the world says of us ; to be 
always anxious about the effect of what we do or say ; 
to be always shouting to hear the echo of our own 
voices. 

Before such a spirit, especially when inspired by 
right motives, not only do obstacles give way, but they 
are so met and used as to be made helps and instru- 
ments of progress and success, by the power of high 
aims and an earnest and resolute will. And the indi- 
vidual, by the way he meets and overcomes and uses 
them, reminds us of the fabled specter ships that were 
said to sail fastest in the very teeth of the wind! 

" I l&ve really nothing for a boy to. do, madam." 

The lady turned away; she was too shy to beg for 
work for her boy, yet if he could earn nothing what 
were 'they to do? Will Seaton lingered hehind his 
mother a moment. 

" I'll see mother to a car, sir, and then I want just 
a few words with you." 

Mr. Bentley was astonished at the manly, respect- 
ful, yet confident tone; the boy's looks were against 
him, and he had not been prepossessed in his favor. 



SECRETS OF SUCCESS. 1 69 

"Certainly," he said kindly. 

In five minutes the young fellow was back. 

"You said you had nothing for me to do, sir, but 
perhaps you don't think all I could do for you." 

"What, for instance?" 

"I can make your interests my own; I can \>t faith- 
ful. I never tell a lie, and I would think nothing too 
mean or small for me to do ; I can black boots, sir, or I 
can write a good letter. I wouldn't boast if it wasn't 
for mother, sir. She has very little, and I'm her only 
boy." 

Mr. Bentley smiled, but was touched. 

"What recommendations can you bring?" 

"Why, mother spoke for me, sir." Then, as if 
understanding that a mother's judgment may be par- 
tial, he added: "And here is proof that I'm pretty 
regular at my duty." 

He handed Mr. Bentley a pocket Testament, open 
at the fly-leaf: "A reward for punctual attendance at 
morning and afternoon Sunday-school for two years." 
Mr. Bentley held the book open and looked up at the 
eager face. 

"I don't really need you, unless you should prove 
a perfect treasure. I would give you a very low 
salary till I proved you." 

"All right, sir. I told mother I meant you should 
take me, so she won't be worried if I'm not back till 
night. What shall I do?" 

This settled the matter; the boy did not ask one 
word about salary, and in two months' time he had so 
clearly proved himself u a treasure" that Mr. Bentley 



I70 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

doubled his salary; and the gentleman's intimate 
friends know that that plain, ungainly boy, by his 
faithful attention to duty, bids fair to be a partner in 
the firm in future years. 

Every boy wishes to be successful ; and he thinks 
if he only could find a sure road to success in any 
undertaking, he would not hesitate to enter it. It is the 
fear of failure at the last that keeps many from push- 
ing on. 

There are three qualities that will insure success in 
any walk of life, namely, ability, integrity, and industry; 
and though at first it mio-ht seem as if the first of these 
must be a gift and cannot be cultivated, you will find 
that it is a fact that every boy has ability, if he 
only finds out in which line of study or action it lies. 
Ability is the power of doing a thing well. A boy 
should learn early that he cannot have ability in every- 
thing ; that is, few boys have a great deal of general 
ability. The first rule should be that "whatever is 
worth doing at all, is worth doing well." A boy who 
does his best in whatever he undertakes will soon find 
in what direction his efforts meet with most marked 
success ; and having discovered that, let him bend all 
his energies to be first in that particular branch of 
study or work. Better be a first-class carpenter than 
a fourth-rate lawyer; a good machinist than a poor 
doctor. 

But many boys cannot judge of their own abilities, 
and the father, who should study his son's peculiar 
temperament and characteristics, gives them little 
thought. Don't give it up; be on the watch to make a 



SECRETS OF SUCCESS. 171 

good friend; choose your associates among those who 
aim high, not as to money or social standing, but as to 
learning and earnest Christian living. 

A boy should have at least one friend several years 
his senior, who can guide him as to a choice of what 
branch of work or study to set his best efforts to. He 
will, by earnest endeavor, gain ability ; but let him 
guard well his integrity. There is more than truthful- 
ness; it is the whole-heartedness. 

A boy of integrity is like a stout, staunch ship sail- 
ing through the ocean; the waves may sway her from 
side to side, but she will remain whole and firm. Boys, 
make up your minds to be true. If you have deceived, 
say so to yourself, and say, " By God's help I'll stop 
short from this day. I must earn an honorable name, 
and I will;" and at whatever cost to yourself, be 
true ; let no temptation spring a leak in your heart. 

Now about industry : A boy with good ability, and 
integrity, even if he is rather lazy and shiftless, will 
perhaps get along; but what opportunity is lost for 
usefulness ! 

Boys, remember that the most successful men have 
been the most industrious. It is easy to point out 
some rich man and say, "He began as a poor boy." 
Yes, but he worked hard, year in and out. One word 
about this industry. Don't let it be simply being 
industrious to be rich. Aim higher than riches ; store 
your mind with gleanings from the best writers, culti- 
vate a taste for reading, and let the success at which 
you aim be the approval of a good conscience. Riches 
are not to be despised; but it is only when they are 



172 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

united to learning and religion that they are to be 
envied. 

I wish boys would realize more that every little 
event of their boyhood is shaping their future charac- 
ter. The boy who is more anxious to understand per- 
fectly what he learns than to appear to make great 
progress, who cares more for acquiring knowledge 
than to shine as a student, will be a man of more 
ability and integrity than one who cares for the mere 
surface show. 

Knowledge, to be of service, must be so ready for 
use as to promptly respond when required. Certain 
persons are in the habit of jotting down in a memo- 
randum book, under appropriate heads, what they 
learn. They encounter, however, two annoyances : 
the memorandum book is not always at hand when 
an occasion arises for consulting it ; and the mind, 
untrained to retain and bring forth knowledge, refuses 
to respond to the demand. A writer in the " Boston 
Transcript" gives out wise suggestions as to this habit : 

After all, the brain is the best and most reliable 
memorandum book ; it is always at hand, use enlarges 
its capacity and increases its usefulness and reliability, 
and no one can read it but its owner. 

Once let the brain get into a receptive and reten- 
tive way, and it will go on gathering and holding 
information without any effort on the part of him who 
carries it about, and before he knows it he will have a 
stock of valuable and immediately available facts that 
will distance the best kept set of memorandum books 
ever written. 



SECRETS OF SUCCESS. I J 3 

A trained hand is a good thing, but a trained head 
is a better and a scarcer. People talk about being 
" blessed " with a good memory. Any man who has 
ordinary mental capacity can " bless" himself with 
that useful article if he will but try. 

Don't rely on fictitious aids. Don't try to remem- 
ber a thing by remembering something to remember 
it by. That is clumsy and roundabout. Strive to 
remember the thing itself, and if you will but per- 
severe, you'll find that it is not so difficult after all. 

It is the close observation of little things which is 
the secret of success in business, in art, in science, 
and in every pursuit in life. Human knowledge is 
but an accumulation of small facts, made by successive 
generations of men — the little bits of knowledge and 
experience carefully treasured up by them growing at 
length into a mighty pyramid. 

When a man speaks with ease, or writes with ease, 
or paints with ease, or does anything with ease and 
gracefulness, you may be assured it does not come 
natural for him to do so. He has been hard at work 
fitting himself for this very performance. And his 
preparatory work has by no means been pleasant to 
him. He has drudged, because without drudgery he 
could have no hope of success. "Of all the work that 
produces results," says a sensible writer, "nine-tenths 
must be drudgery. There is no work, from the highest 
to the lowest, which can be done well by any man who 
is unwilling to make that sacrifice. Part of the very 
nobility of the devotion of the true workman to his 
work consists in the fact that a man is not daunted by 






- 



174 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

finding that drudgery must be done; and no man can 
really succeed in any walk of life without possessing a 
good deal of what is called, in ordinary English, pluck. 
That is the condition of all work whatever, and it is 
the condition of all success." 

A man rarely succeeds in after life who fails during 
his boyhood to form habits of industry. No matter 
how great his natural endowments of mind and body, 
if he fails here he fails everywhere. Almost every 
young man has at least one chance for success. If he 
has the right stuff in him he seizes it and hangs on 
with the grip of a bulldog, and never lets go until suc- 
cess is his. It is just this capacity for hanging on, for 
sheer hard work, that distinguishes the successful from 
the unsuccessful man. 

The young man who expects to find any profession 
or business a bed of roses makes a grand mistake. 
There is no end to the disagreeable, tiresome, plod- 
ding work that is necessary to succeed in any calling, 
and the young man who does this work most faithfully 
is the man who in prime of life wins the prize. 

There is no reason why a young man should not 
succeed in a country like this, where every one has a 
fair field and no favor — at least, there is no reason out- 
side of himself. If he is willing to pay the price, the 
future is his own. He needs only three things, integ- 
rity, industry and economy, so wrought into his habits 
as to be a part of himself. These habits are usually 
acquired early, if at all, so that with most men the bat- 
tle of life is fought and won before they are out of 
their teens. 



SECRETS OF SUCCESS. I 75 

Just here is the lesson to parents. Every father 
hopes that his boy will be the eighteenth one who is to 
succeed. The way to make the result a moral cer- 
tainty is to train the boy, while his character is form- 
ing, in habits of honesty, industry and economy. This 
may be done either in the city or in the country, and if 
it is done, the boy is as certain to succeed as a balloon 
is to rise. Such a boy can't be kept down. 

Look most to your spending. No matter what 
comes in, if more goes out you will always be poor. 
The art is not in making money, but keeping it. Little 
expenses, like mice in a large barn, when they are 
many, make great waste. Hair by hair heads get 
bald ; straw by straw the thatch goes off the cottage, 
and drop by drop the rain comes in the chamber. A 
barrel is soon empty, if the tap leaks but a drop a 
minute. When you mean to save, begin with your 
mouth ; many thieves pass down red lane. The ale 
jug is a great waste. In all other things keep within 
compass. Never stretch your legs further than the 
blankets will reach, or you will soon be cold. In 
clothes chose suitable and lasting stuff, and not tawdry 
fineries. To be warm is the main thing ; never mind 
the looks. A fool may make money, but it needs a 
wise man to spend it. Remember that it is easier to 
build two chimneys than to keep one going. If you 
give all to back and board, there is nothing left for 
the savings bank. Fare hard and work hard while 
you are young, and you will have a chance to rest 
when you are old. 

Don't wait for windfalls: gather your own apples. 



I76 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

The master's eye puts flesh on the horse's bones. 
Patient, self-denying work is the price of success. 
Ease and indolence eat away not the price of capital 
only, but worse still, all a man's nerve power. Pres- 
ent gratification tends to put off duty until to-morrow 
or next week, and so the golden moments slip by. It 
is getting to be a rare thing for the sons of rich men 
to die rich. Too often they squander in a half score 
of years what their fathers were a lifetime in accumu- 
lating. I wish I could ring it in the ear of every 
aspiring young man that work, hard work, of head 
and hands, is the price of success. 

It was stated not long ago, in the newspapers, that 
the already enormous estate of one speculator in 
stocks in New York was further increased last year by 
the sum of thirty million dollars. Several other great 
New York estates were swelled by speculation in de- 
grees only less colossal. 

Such figures are calculated to stir and dazzle am- 
bitious young men, to whom the possession of a great 
fortune often appears to be the greatest height of 
earthly happiness. That money in such vast amounts 
should be so apparently easily and rapidly made, 
stimulates the young minds to seek similar methods of 
enriching themselves. 

The increased fortunes which have been mentioned 
were made, for the most part, by pure speculation. 
The men whose pockets were thus glutted did not 
thus add to their millions by hard and useful labor, • 
productive and of added value to the community at 
large. Nor did they receive this mcrease by the 



SECRETS OF SUCCESS. I 77 

natural and normal income ot their already vast prop- 
erties. 

The sum thus piled up came from wholesale deal- 
ing in stocks ; by influencing the money market, press- 
ing one stock down, and another up, not for the finan- 
cial good of their city or country, but for their own 
personal profit. 

This is really little or no better than pure gamb- 
ling ; in one aspect, indeed, it is worse, since the opera- 
tors already held, in great sums of money, winning cards 
in their hands against their blind opponents and victims. 

It is not thus, after all, that the great and enduring 
fortunes of the world are made and accumulated. 
Speculation is a wild and dangerous game. It creates 
a perpetual, restless fever; every day, the largest 
fortunes involved in it are in peril. 

Even the largest speculator may wake, any morn- 
ing, to find his millions vanished. Such fortunes rest 
on no secure foundation. An unexpected event may 
cause a crash, when all seems hopeful and secure. 
That is, fortunes made by speculation in stocks may, 
and often do, disappear as rapidly as they are built up. 

The solid and lasting fortunes are those which are 
established gradually, step by step ; by serving some 
useful function in the world ; by prudence, economy, 
and good judgment in making sound investments ; 
by putting by, little by little, each month and each 
year; nay, by making a resolve never to risk the 
hard-earned sums in the hazardous practice of gambling 
in stocks. 

If we observe the facts which history teaches us, 

12 



I 78 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

we find this method of raising lasting fortunes the one 
confirmed by events. It was by attending to their 
business, by slow and careful increase, by proving 
themselves trustworthy and faithful to their clients, 
and by never, on any account, entering into bubble 
speculations, that such princes of wealth as the 
Rothschilds, the Barings, George Peabody, Peter 
Cooper, John Jacob Astor attained their great financial 
influence and their huge incomes. 

All these men were engaged in doing something, 
or selling something, for the benefit of mankind. 
Their good fortunes came justly from the confidence 
with which they inspired those with whom they had 
relations. Through several generations, the two 
greatest banking firms in the world — the Rothschilds 
and the Barings — have sustained this reputation for 
honesty and probity, and their strictly legitimate bus- 
iness thrift. Were it ever known that either engaged 
in the wild speculations of the stock exchange, there 
can be no doubt that a large portion of their power, 
and very likely their fortunes also, would soon be dis- 
sipated. 

Tire best way is to acquire money by hard, honest 
work. It stays longer by those who so obtain it; 
and its possession is far sweeter when earned by the 
toil of the brow, than when it is got by the feverish 
transactions of stock gambling. 



SQUANDERING ENERGIES. I 79 



Squandering- €nbrgies. 

Carlyle once asked an Edinburgh student what 
he was studying for. The youth replied that he had 
not quite made up his mind. There was a sudden 
flash of the old Scotchman's eye, a sudden pulling 
down of the shaggy eyebrows, and the stern face grew 
sterner as he said : " The man without a purpose is 
like a ship without a rudder — a waif, a nothing, a no 
man. Have a purpose in life, if it is only to kill and 
divide and sell oxen well, but have a purpose ; and 
having it, throw such strength of mind and muscle into 
your work as God has given you." 

" What are you making, Tom ? " asked a lounger in 
a blacksmith's shop of the new apprentice, who was 
hammering away vigorously upon a piece of iron. 

"I don't know," replied the embryo Vulcan, "but 
I reckon if I keep working on it, it will make some- 
thing." 

So he put the bit of iron again into the fire, and 
blew the bellows until the ruddy, glowing light reached 
every corner of the little dingy shop, and a bright 
shower of sparks fell around. Then when it was red 
hot he put it again upon the anvil, and hammered it 
this way and that, expending a great deal of time and 
muscular energy. At length he threw it aside, 
exclaiming : 

" There ! I didn't make anything after all." 

I have often thought that many young people are 



l8o WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

living like the young blacksmith. They have mate- 
rials, time, health and talents, of which something 
noble and useful should be made, but they just live 
along, without an aim at anything in particular, and 
with no idea of wmat they will be or do. And so, 
before they are aware, the close of life comes upon 
them, and they find that they have " not made any- 
thing, after all." There are some who have an object 
in view, but it is a low one, unworthy the toil of immor- 
tal beings. It may be the heaping together of riches, 
sensuous pleasures, or the gratification of some more 
laudable ambition. But if it is pursued without taking 
our duty to God and our fellow-creatures into account, 
and gained, it will prove so poor, so unsatisfying in 
the end, that the same regret will be felt, that " noth- 
ing has been made, after all." 

A man may be an eternal failure, although his foot- 
steps glitter with gold and his words sparkle with, 
knowledge. That man is the most successful in the 
divine kingdom who sets in motion the greatest 
amount of spiritual power for the glory of God, what- 
ever may be the opinions or rewards of fallen mortals, 

For our part, we believe in system, order, method, 
to the full extent of our capacity to understand their 
value, we know that learning, genius, zeal, often waste 
themselves in fruitless self-destructive exertions, for 
the lack of method. We have no confidence in blind 
force. Crooked and gnarled oaks cannot be split in 
-straight lines, or by the blunt end of the wedge with 
ever so great an outlay of pow r er. Power working in 
Jthe wrong direction is at a ruinous disadvantage, and 



SQUANDERING ENERGIES. l8l 

the greater the power, in such a case, the greater the 
danger, damage and disaster. 

Men do not like to face their circumstances, and 
so they turn their backs on the truth. They try all 
sorts of schemes to get out of their difficulties, and 
like the Banbury tinker, they make three holes in the 
saucepan to mend one. They are like Pedley, who 
burned a penny- candle in looking for a farthing. They 
borrow of Peter to pay' Paul, and then Peter is let in 
for it. At last people fight shy of them, and say that 
they are as honest as a cat when the meat is out of 
reach, and they murmur that plain dealing is dead, 
and died without issue. Too much cunning overdoes 
its work, and in the long run there is no craft which is 
so wise as simple honesty. 

I would not be hard on a poor fellow, nor pour 
water on a drowned mouse ; if through misfortune the 
man can't pay, why he can't pay, and let him say so, 
and do the honest thing with what little he has, and 
kind hearts will feel for him. It is hard to sail over 
the sea in an egg-shell, and it is not much easier 
to pay your way when your capital is all gone. Out 
of nothing comes nothing, and you may turn your 
nothing over a long time before it will grow into a ten 
pound note. The way to Babylon will never bring 
you to Jerusalem, and borrowing, and diving deeper 
into debt, will never get a man out of difficulties. Let 
the poor, unfortunate tradesman hold to his honesty 
as he would to his life. The straight road is the 
shortest cut. Better break stones on the road than 
break the law of God. 



152 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 



There are other ways of using the old saying. It 
is hard for a hypocrite to keep up his profession. 
Empty sacks can't stand upright in a church any better 
than in a granary. Prating does not make saints, or 
there would be plenty of them. Long prayers and 
loud professions only deceive the simple, and those 
who see further than the surface soon spy out the 
wolf under the sheepskin. 

If we could only sooner give up thinking to 
"gather grapes from thorns and figs from thistles," 
we would be spared some of life's sorest disappoint- 
ments. But we can never quite believe that in our 
garden like will invariably produce like : and so we go 
on and on industriously cultivating the ugly, thorny 
stalks we have so long cherished, sure that some day 
they will bud and blossom, and bear delicious fruit. 
We dig and plant, and water and wait — for a full 
harvest of thorns. 

There is something in this phrase, which we hear 
every day, that set us to thinking this morning as a 
young man passed out of a shop of one of our friends. 
"I am sorry for that poor fellow; it seems that he can't 
get along," said the proprietor of the store. 

Why not? That young man was a good accoun- 
tant, an elegant penman, did not drink nor gamble, 
and his integrity was undoubted, and yet he fails to 
get along. He has neither wife nor child, no poor 
relation, no crippled brother nor bed-ridden aunt to 
support, but he fails to get along. What were his 
defects? He lacked punctuality. He wanted neither 
industry nor ability, but that nature given instinct of 



SQUANDERING ENERGIES. l8 



the western world — energy. He was always a little 
behind time. Appoint his own hour to meet him, and 
you were sure to be detained from ten minutes to half 
an hour waiting for him. He had some excuse always 
on the tip of his tongue, but you never felt sure of 
your man. 

In the business world an unpunctual man is simply 
a robber, for he not only consumes his time when 
belonging to other people, but wastes theirs by his 
delays. 

The watched pot never boils ; there are people for- 
ever in search for happiness who never find it. 
Happiness oftenest comes by indirection. You are 
intent on duty, and are surprised to find you have 
stumbled on more than you sought! To make happi- 
ness an end of your seeking is an easy way not to find 
it. It is a coy blessing. Hovering about your path 
it yet eludes your grasp. Attempt to put your hands 
on it, and, like the wild gazelle upon the mountains, it 
bounds away. The search for happiness is like the 
search for the end of the rainbow — it recedes as you 
advance. You cannot capture it. After all your 
planning and straining after happiness, you will have 
to give up the pursuit and content yourself with fol- 
lowing the plain and plodding path of duty, and to 
find your joy in fidelity to conscience and in obedience 
to the divine will. Once in this state, happiness comes 
to you unsought, dropping down, as it were, from the 
skies — a surprising benediction in the midst of your 
cares and burdens, as though it would say to you : 
"You could not capture me, but lo ! I am here, and at 



184 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

your service." In attaining this blessing imitate the 
boatman who, in crossing the stream, directs his prow 
above the point of destination, and so makes sure of it. 
Aim at something higher than happiness; aim to be 
good, holy, pure and true, and the higher will be sure 
to include the lower. 

"The weakest living creature," says Carlyle, "by 
concentrating his powers on a single object, can 
accomplish something; whereas the strongest, by dis- 
persing his over many, may fail to accomplish any- 
thing." Have we difficulties to contend with? Then 
work through them. No exorcism charms like labor. 
Idleness of mind and body resembles rust. It wears 
more than work. "I would rather work out than rust 
out," said a noble worker. Schiller said that he found 
the greatest happiness in life to consist in the perform- 
ance of some mechanical duty. 

With the civilized man, contentment is a myth. 
From the cradle to the grave he is forever longing 
and striving after something better, an indefinable 
something, some new object yet unattained. Our 
Master has fitted our work to our hands, knowing our 
ability, understanding our difficulties, considering our 
weakness, but not indolence, and leaving no place in 
all Zion for idle hands to fold themselves to slumber. 

The Christian who is always finding difficulties in 
his own way is pretty certain to be an effectual block 
in somebody else's way. There ever seem to be 
difficulties in plenty for one who spends the time in 
hunting after them ; but they either vanish before the 
resolute soul that presses forward toward the mark of 



STRENGTH OF CHARACTER. 1 85 

the high calling of God which is in Christ Jesus, or 
else grace is given to overcome them as they are met. 
The point is simply to press forward ; and above all 
things, to make sure that oneself is not a difficulty. 
The thing which an active mind most needs, is a 
purpose and direction worthy of its activity. The 
dread that we have that precious hopes will never be 
realized is more than half of the burden that we have 
to bear. Better fail a thousand times, and in every- 
thing else, than attempt to shape for yourself a life 
without God, without hope in Christ, and without an 
interest in heaven. But those who have a high, pure 
aim in life, some noble end to be accomplished for the 
benefit of our fellow creatures, and the advancement 
of the interests of the Redeemer's kingdom, if such an 
object is labored and striven for, in the strength of the 
Lord, something precious and beautiful in the sight of 
God and the angels will be formed, a full and com- 
pletely rounded life, answering the end for which it 
was created. 



Strength of (©ha^agjbei^ 

It is often said that knowledge is power, and this is 
true. For faculty of any kind carries with it superi- 
ority. So, to a certain extent, wealth is power, and 
genius has a transcendent gift of mastery over men. 
But higher, purer, and better than all, more consistent 
in its influence and more lasting in its sway, is the 



1 86 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

power of character; that power which emanates from 
a pure and lofty mind. 

Take any community — who is the man of influ- 
ence? To whom do all look up with reverence? Not 
the " smartest " man, nor the cleverest politician, nor 
the most brilliant talker, but he who in a long course 
of years, tried by the extremes of prosperity and 
adversity, has approved himself to the judgment of his 
neighbors, and all who have seen his life, as worthy to 
be called wise and good. . 

The best advertisement of a workshop is first-class 
work. The strongest attraction to Christianity is a 
well-made Christian character. 

Character is a plant of the slowest growth. A 
completely fashioned will is the achievement of such 
grand and beautiful proportions that infinite care and 
pains may well be spent on its foundations, and its 
gradual building up, part after part, into commanding" 
height and spacious breadth and noble symmetry. 
Truly, the foundations of this structure are deeper 
than our visible and conscious individual life. They 
are many generations deep. 

If you would build a good character, don't expect 
to do it in a day, a month, or even a year; for you will 
be disappointed, as it will take a lifetime. Commence 
by laying a good and broad foundation, and then let 
the structure rise slowly and surely. Christ must be 
the foundation stone. It takes years and years to ob- 
tain a good education, and then a student is always 
acquiring more knowledge. To acquire a pure, strong 
character is the holiest and grandest work of man. 



STRENGTH OF CHARACTER. 187 

One speaks as follows of character: It makes 
friends, creates funds, draws patronage and support 
and opens a sure way to honor, wealth and happiness. 
Dr. Vincent says : " An ounce of heart is worth a ton 
of culture; the mightiest force in the world is heart- 
force." ''Like November roses blooming in the midst 
of winter's bleakness ; like green oases in the sandy 
desert; like the great gulf stream, which flows from 
the Western world through the ocean, yet distinct 
from it in color and warmth ; so should Christians be 
in the world — of it, but not confounded with it. As the 
Jews have ever been a peculiar people by their man- 
ners, appearance and religion, so should Christians, by 
the holiness of their lives, be distinguished from all the 
world besides." 

Only what we have wrought into our characters 
during life can we take away with us. The patient 
pursuance of a high ideal is the crucial test of nature ; 
desperately to miss it may be the final discipline of char- 
acter. The trials and temptations of this life are 
making us fit for the life to come — building up a char- 
acter for eternity. You have been in a piano manu- 
factory ; did you ever go there for the sake of music ? 
Go into the tuning-room and you will say ; " This is a 
dreadful place to be in ; I cannot bear it ; I thought 
you made music here." 

Composure is very often the highest result of 
strength. Did we, never see a man receive a flagrant 
insult, and only grow a little pale and then reply qui- 
etly? That was a man spiritually strong. Or did we 
never see a man in anguish stand, as if carved out of 



1 88 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

solid rock, mastering himself? or one bearing a hope- 
less daily trial remain silent, and never tell the world 
what it was that cankered his home-peace ? That is 
strength. He who with strong passions remains 
chaste; he who, keenly sensitive, with manly power of 
indignation in him, can be provoked and yet refrain 
himself, and forgive: — these are strong men, spiritual 
heroes. 

The human soul, as it exists, can be made perfect 
only through struggle and suffering. Nowhere else 
have these elements so beneficent an office as in the 
case of man. The higher manifestations of character 
spring almost entirely from the soil of sorrow. If we 
should strike out from human history the heroic and 
saintly characters which have been born from suffer- 
ing, all that is noble and reverent in it would depart. 
If we should strike from literature all to which sorrow 
has given birth, its inspiration would perish forever, 
Even the presence of death has brought a solemn ten- 
derness and dignity into human affection, which had 
otherwise been impossible. Virtue, too, acquires stur- 
diness only from resisted temptations; and even mind 
itself grows only through obstacle and resistance. 

" Can you judge a man's character by his desires ?" 
I answer, yes. I will give you the other side of the 
question, that you may see your own side all the more 
clearly. You may certainly judge a bad man by his 
desires. Here is a man who de^res to be a thief. 
Well, he is a thief in heart and spirit. Who would 
trust him in his house now that he knows that he groans 
to rob and steal? Here is a man who desires to bean 



STRENGTH OF CHARACTER. 159 

adulterer — is he not in God's sight already such ? Did 
not Jesus tell us so ? Here is a man who desires to be a 
Sabbath-breaker, but he is compelled by his situation 
to attend the house of God: he is really in God's sight 
a Sabbath breaker, because he would follow his own 
works on God's holy day if he had an opportunity. 
The desire to commit a fraud, and especially the 
earnest desire to do it, would prove a man to be a vil- 
lain at heart. If a man were to say, "I want to cut 
my enemy's throat, I am full of revenge, I am groaning 
to murder him," is he not a murderer already before 
God ? Let us, then, measure out justice in our own 
case by the rule which we allow towards others. 

The habit of willing is called purpose, and, from 
what has been said, the importance of forming a right 
purpose early in life will be obvious. "Character," 
says Novalis, "is a completely-fashioned will;" and 
the will, when once fashioned, may be steady and 
constant for life. When the true man, bent on good, 
holds by his purpose, he places but small value 'on the 
rewards or praises of the world ; his own approving 
conscience, and the "well-done" which. awaits him, is 
his best reward. 

The first Lord Shaftesbury, in a conversation with 
Locke, broached a theory of character and conduct 
which threw a light upon his own. He said that 
wisdom lay in the heart and not in the head, and 
that it was not the want of knowledge but the per- 
verseness of will that filled men's actions with folly, and 
their lives with disorder. Mere knowledge does not 
give vigor to character. A man may reason too 



I gO WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

much. He may weigh the thousand probabilities on 
either side, and come to no action, no decision. 
Knowledge is thus a check upon action. The will 
must act in the light of the spirit and the understand- 
ing, and the soul then springs into full life and action. 

It is, therefore, of the utmost importance that atten- 
tion should be directed to the improvement and 
strengthening of the Will ; for without this there can 
neither be independence, nor firmness, nor individuality 
of character. Without it we cannot give truth its 
proper force, nor morals their proper direction, nor 
save ourselves from being machines in the hands of 
worthless and designing men. Intellectual cultivation 
will not give decision of character. Philosophers dis- 
cuss ; decisive men act. " Not to resolve," says 
Bacon, "is to resolve" — that is to do nothing. 

No man can rise above the constraining considera- 
tions which spring from interest, feeling, safety, pleas- 
ure, in reference to all minor questions of duty, save 
as he resolves religion into some great general princi- 
ples and purposes, from the decision of which there is 
no appeal. These principles, wisely adopted and well 
understood, will marshal all the chances and changes 
of life, all its untoward events, all its interfering agen- 
cies, s.o that they shall fall into ranks like well-trained 
soldiers under the command of a superior officer. 
They simplify religion, disentangle it from all purely 
selfish influences, from the bias of worldly interests, 
from the guile of passion, and leave a man free to 
glorify God according to the Scriptures. 

How simple and sublime the character, deriving its 



STRENGTH OF CHARACTER. I9I 

greatness and worth from God and duty ! How 
grandly independent is he who knows no fear but the 
fear of God, who seeks no favor but the smile of 
Jesus, and whose single eye scans all things, great and 
small, in the light which no shadow can eclipse! His 
life regulated by one great pervading law and purpose, 
•he escapes all the trials by which feebler and less 
decided Christians are tormented and impeded. His 
heart, consecrated in all its plans and purposes, falters 
not at sacrifice, or peril, or suffering. Difficulties and 
doubts he has none. His religion is to him a law that 
never changes. His heart is fixed, trusting in the 
Lord. His plan of life settled scripturally, advisedly, 
and in the fear of God, he is not to be bought or 
bribed, frightened or defeated. 

Turning neither to the right nor left, he moves 
right on. If, along his pathway, the den of lions 
opens, he lies down and lodges for the night, and in 
the morning tells how the angel kept him. If the fur- 
nace be kindled to test or to destroy him, he walks 
unburned in the name, and comes forth without the 
smell of fire upon his garments. Escaped from the 
shallows and the breakers where so many toil with una- 
vailing oar, he has launched on the deep, and, favored 
by wind and tide, looks with lively hope for an abun- 
dant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

Nothing of character is really permanent but virtue 
and personal worth. These remain. Whatever of 
excellence is wrought into the soul itself belongs to 
both worlds. Real goodness does, not attach itself 



192 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

merely to this life ; it points to another world. Politi- 
cal or professional reputation cannot last forever; but 
a conscience void of offense before God and man, is 
an inheritance for eternity. Religion, therefore, is a 
necessary and indispensable element in any great 
human character. There is no living without it. 
Religion is the tie that connects man with his Creator, ■ 
and holds him to his throne. If that tie be all sun- 
dered, all broken, he floats away, a worthless atom in 
the universe; its proper attractions all gone, its destiny 
thwarted, and its whole future nothing but darkness, 
desolation, and death. A man with no sense of relig- 
ious duty is he whom the Scriptures describe, in such 
terse but terrific language, as living "without God in 
the world." Such a man is out of his proper being, 
out of the circle of all his duties, out of the circle of all 
his happiness, and away, far, far away, from the pur- 
poses of his creation. 

Strength of Influence. 

Bound together, as we are, by the ties of a con> 
mon nature and of mutual dependence, every man is 
a fountain of influence, good or bad, conservative or 
destructive. Whether he will or not, he is an ex- 
ample. His language, spirit, actions, habits, his very 
manners, all tell — forming the taste, moulding the 
character, and shaping the course of others, to the end 
of time. No man liveth to himself. He cannot. Ap- 



STRENGTH OF INFLUENCE. 1 93 

parently he may, but really he does not. His plans 
and his aspirations may all revolve around himself as 
a common centre, but within and without their orbits 
will be concentric circles, enclosing other agents and 
other interests. He may rear walls around his posses- 
sions, call his lands by his own name, and his inward 
thought may be, as the world phrase it, to take care of 
himself and his dependents ; but he can neither limit 
the effect of his plans nor forecast the inheritance of 
his estate. Another enters even into his labors. 
Disruptive changes abolish his best-concerted schemes, 
and scatter to the winds all the securities by which he 
sought to fence and individualize his own peculiar 
interest. 

" Gather up my influence and bury it with me," 
were the dying words of a young man to the weeping 
friends at his bedside, as stated to the writer a while 
since by one to whom he was dear. What a wish was 
this! What deep anguish of heart there must have 
been as the young man reflected upon his past life! a 
life which had not been what it should have been. 
With what deep regrets must his very soul have been 
filled as he thought of those young men whom he had 
influenced for evil ! — influences which he felt must if 
possible be eradicated, and which led him, faintly but 
pleadingly, to breathe out such a dying request, 
"Gather up my influence and bury it with me." 

My young friends, the influence of your lives, for 
good or evil, cannot be gathered up by your friends 
after your eyes are closed in death, no matter how 
earnestly you may plead in your last moments on 

13 



194 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

earth. Your influence has gone out from you ; you 
alone were responsible ; you had the power to govern, 
to shape; your influence no human being can with- 
draw. Such a request cannot be fulfilled. It is im- 
possible. 

We are either scattering abroad, or gathering in 
the great harvest field of souls. A word, a look, an 
apparently unimportant act, may affect the eternal 
interests of some young man who is quietly looking to 
us for example. They easily see if we are hankering 
after the follies and amusements of this world, or if we 
are living what we profess. A young man some time 
ago, in accepting an invitation to an evening's enter- 
tainment, found himself unexpectedly in a company 
where all were engaged in card-playing and wine- 
drinking. He could not leave the circle, nor express 
his disapprobation of the condition of things, but sit 
quietly by and lift a prayer for the dear friends 
around him, which he did, and departed for his home 
at the close of the evening. 

Years passed, the circumstance had nearly left his 
memory. One day a friend inquired, "Do you re- 
member being present at an evening party when all 
but yourself were engaged in card-playing and wine- 
drinking? You sat silently by, saying nothing on the- 
subject, but refusing to participate. A. was among 
the guests. Your silent disapproval smote his heart 
and was the means of his conversion." Reader, what 
influence are you exerting day by day in your walk in 
life, as a professed follower of the Lord Jesus Christ? 
Are you as a light set upon a hill, that others may 



STRENGTH OF INFLUENCE. 1 95 

take knowledge of you, that you are living and acting 
day by day as you have professed to believe? What 
is your silent influence among the young men of your 
acquaintance? 

We are touching our fellow-beings on all sides. 
They are affected for good or for evil by what we are, 
by what we say and do, even by what we think and 
feel. May-flowers in the parlor breathe their fra- 
grance through the atmosphere. We are each of us 
as silently saturating the atmosphere about us with the 
subtile aroma of our character. ■ In the family circle, 
besides and beyond all the teaching, the daily life of 
each parent and child mysteriously modifies the life of 
every person in the household. The same process on 
a wider scale is going on through the community. 
Others are built up and strengthened by our uncon- 
scious deeds; and others may be wrenched out of 
their places and thrown down by our unconscious 
influence. 

If we have been denied those extraordinary talents 
which ever give their possessors such influence, we 
are apt to imagine there is nothing for us to do. But 
this is not so : 

Every one though poor and humble, 

Has a mission to fulfill, 
Every hand though small and feeble, 

Can work out some good or ill. 

We, then, who may mourn over the want of talents, 
the inability to accomplish great things, should take 
courage. Though we be not distinguished for brill- 
iant acquirements, though the worldly and the gay 
seek not our society, though listening senates and 



I96 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

crowded assemblies hang not upon the eloquence of 
our tongue, yet we may exert an influence, unob- 
served save by an all-seeing eye, an influence gentle 
as the dew-drop, sweet as the fragrant flower — which 
will live when the vain and frivolous are forgotten, 
when the statesman and the orator are stilled in death. 
If we have soothed one aching heart, if we have spo- 
ken one word of encouragement to an erring brother, 
if we have given even a cup of cold water to one of 
the household of faith, we are not living in vain. Such 
deeds though seemingly trifling, are precious in the 
sight of God, and are recorded in his jeweled ledgers 
in characters as imperishable as eternity. 

The mother of the Rev. John Newton, a pious 
woman of the south of England, died when he was 
but seven years old, leaving him only the memory of 
her religious teaching and goodness. At an early age 
he became a dissipated, sailor. The memory of his 
mother brought him to himself and started a stream 
of incalculable influence. Through him Claudius 
Buchanan was converted, who became a missionary to 
India. He wrote "The Star in the East," which made 
Adoniram Judson a missionary to India. Newton was 
also the means of converting Thomas Scott, the com- 
mentator. Through him Cowper was rescued from 
despondency, and his harp tuned to the key of relig- 
ion. His influence upon the career of Wilberforce is 
asserted, and also that the abolition of the slave trade 
was one of its remote results. Wilberforce wrote " A 
Practical View of Christianity," a useful book, the 
instrument of converting Leigh Richmond, the author 



• STRENGTH OF INFLUENCE. 1 97 

of " The Dairy-man's Daughter," which has saved 
thousands.. Back of it all stands the faithful mother of 
John Newton. 

Many a man has not got so far from your sympa- 
thy but that one word, kindly said in his ear, " My 
friend, you are going wrong," will check him. The 
difficulty is that we let men go so far from our sym- 
pathy that we cannot reach them. Now, it is this in- 
dividual work that I believe is to reform the world, and 
bring it back to God, 

Indeed, the learning of letters and words and sen- 
tences is not of the importance that some think it to 
be. Learning has nothing to do with goodness or 
happiness. It may destroy humility and give place to 
pride. The chief movers of men have been little ad- 
dicted to literature. Literary men have often attained 
to greatness of thought which influences men in all 
ages; but they rarely attain to moral greatness of 
action. 

Alexander Knox says, " Feeling will be best excited 
by sympathy ; rather it cannot be excited in any other 
way. Heart must act upon heart: the idea of a living 
person being essential to all intercourse of heart." 
True manliness can only exist when the good is sought 
for its own sake, either as a recognized law of pure 
duty, or from the feeling of the constraining beauty of 
virtue. This alone reacts upon the human character. 

Men are regenerated, not so much by truth in the 
abstract, as by the divine inspiration that comes through 
human goodness and sympathy. That is the touch of 
nature which "makes the whole world akin." The man 



I98 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH, 

who throws himself into the existence of another, and 
exerts his utmost efforts to help him in all ways — 
socially, morally, religiously — exerts a divine influence. 
He is enveloped in the strongest safeguard. He bids 
defiance to selfishness. He comes out of his trial 
humble, yet noble. 

Be as careful of the books you read as of the com- 
pany you keep; for your habits and character will be 
as much influenced by the former as the latten 

Nothing takes place without leaving traces behind 
it; and these are in many cases so distinct and various, 
as to leave not a doubt of their cause. We all under- 
stand how, in the material world, events testify of 
themselves to future ages. Should we visit an unknown 
region, and behold masses of lava covered with soil of 
different degrees of thickness, and surrounding a 
blackened crater, we should have as firm a persuasion 
of the occurrence of remote and successive volcanic 
eruptions as if we had lived through the ages in which 
they took place. The chasms of the earth would 
report how terribly it had been shaken, and the awful 
might of long extinguished fires would be written in 
desolations which ages had failed to efface. Now 
conquest, and civil and religious revolutions, leave 
institutions, manners, and a variety of monuments, which 
are inexplicable without them, and which, taken 
together, admit not a doubt of their occurrence. 

No human being can come into this world without 
increasing or diminishing the sum total of human hap- 
piness, not only of present, but of every subsequent 
age of humanity. No one can detach himself from 



CONSTANCY. 1 99 

this connection. There is no sequestered spot in the 
universe, no dark niche along the disc of non-existence, 
to which he can retreat from his relations to others, 
where he can withdraw the influence of his existence 
upon the moral destiny of the world ; everywhere his 
presence or absence will be felt — everywhere he will 
have companions who will be better or worse for his 
influence. It is an old saying, and one of fearful and 
fathomless import, that we are forming characters for 
eternity. Forming characters ! Whose ? our own or 
others ? Both ; and in that momentous fact lies the 
peril and responsibility of our existence. Who is suf- 
ficient for the thought ? Thousands of my fellow-beings 
will yearly enter eternity with characters differing from 
those they would have carried thither had I never lived. 
The sunlight of that world will reveal my finger-marks 
in their primary formations, and in their successive 
strata of thought and life. 



4f+ 



(90NSIPANGY. 

Without constancy there is neither love, friendship nor virtue in the world. 

Plodding zeal is better than spasmodic zeal. You 
can count on it, but you never know when spasmodic 
zeal will burn out. It is the difference between a good 
solid stove thorougly warmed for a long winter night 
with anthracite coal, and a sheet-iron stove red hot with 
a handful of shavings. How soon the red glare fades 
into darkness when the shavings are gone! And how 



200 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

soon they are gone ! Give us the. plodding tortoise 
every time rather than the over-confident, frivolous 
hare. 

How it stirs the nobler feelings of one's nature to 
think even for a moment of that grand host who in all 
ages, and oftentimes aimed cruel persecutions, have 
battled for the right ! 

At the mention of their names the heart leaps as at 
the sound of majestic music. We bless God that the 
world, sin-smitten as it is, has yet been trodden by 
Enoch, Moses, Elijah, Daniel, and all the glorious band 
of prophets, apostles and martyrs ; and that even in 
these latter days noble men and women who adhere 
to truth, justice and charity, have swelled the num- 
bers of that illustrious host, " part of whom have 
crossed the flood and part are crossing now." 

Hope may be drenched, but it cannot be drowned. 
The world is filled with objects of interest and im- 
provement ; see all you can and gain knowledge from 
every thing you see. Deep convictions setting in the 
right direction hold the soul steady in its course 
against the comparatively lighter influences and pas- 
sions which fret the surface of life. 

Write your name by kindness, love and mercy on 
the hearts of the people you come in contact with, and 
you will never be forgotten. If you would rise in the 
world, you must not stop to kick at every cur that 
looks at you as you pass along. A vapid mind con- 
tinually struggles, the feeble one limps, but a great 
mind selects the surest points, and upon these it stands. 
There is a time when thou mayest say nothing and a 



CONSTANCY. 201 

time when thou mayest say something ; but there 
never will be a time when thou shouldest say all things. 

Do we, who have been surrounded from babyhood 
by strong religious influences, realize how hard it must 
be to stand up straight and honorable without such 
surroundings ? 

In a nursery, a young elm, sheltered by its fellows, 
finds it easy to grow straight up to the blue sky above. 
But take it and plant it out on a prairie, where winds 
coming forward in one unbroken sweep for miles strike 
against it,and have it blow with more force from one par- 
ticular quarter than from any other, and how is it then ? 
Almost impossible for it not to be bent by the pressure 
of circumstances. But a youth has an advantage over 
an elm. The latter has no cable to hold it firm, the 
youth has. One that reaches to the All Powerful. It 
is possible, with this aid, for the youth to stand against 
the greatest storm of adverse winds that ever blew. 
And to stand firm. The words that are infallible have 
been spoken! "Lo I am with you always, even unto 
the end." 

" There is no greater mistake," said Dr. Bushnell, 
"than -to suppose that Christians can impress the world 
by agreeing with it. No ; it is not conformity that we 
want; it is not being able to beat the world in its own 
way ; but it is to stand apart and above it, and to pro- 
duce the impression of a holy and separate life. This 
only can give us a true Christian power." 

Xenophon relates that when an Armenian prince 
had been taken captive with his princess by Cyrus, and 
was asked what he would give to be restored to his 



202 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

kingdom, he replied, "As for my kingdom and liberty, I 
value them not; but if my blood would redeem my 
princess, I would cheerfully give it for her." When 
Cyrus had liberated them both, the princess was asked 
what she thought of Cyrus. " I did not see him,"- she 
said ; " I noticed only him who offered to die for me." 

I may faint and be weary, but my God cannot. I 
may alter and fluctuate as to my frames, but my 
Redeemer is unchangeably the same. I might utterly 
fail and come to nothing if left to myself; but I cannot 
be so left to myself, for the Spirit of truth hath said, "I 
will never leave thee nor forsake thee." 

Evil thoughts may come to us, but we are not 
obliged to entertain them. Some one has aptly re- 
marked, "We cannot hinder the birds flying over our 
heads, but we can prevent their making nests in our 
hair." 

Bearing the cross for Christ's sake does not involve 
the sacrifice of any legitimate joy, but we must resist 
the fascinations of the world, and we are promised 
grace in our weaker moments. Trials must needs 
come to make us strong and to prepare us for our 
work. Christ was made perfect through suffering. 

God has so arranged it that nothing is really ours 
and only becomes ours when, by strength of will, we 
force it out of the world's unwilling arms. Bear with 
yourself, but do not flatter yourself. Work effectually 
and steadily at the correction of your faults, yet calmly 
and without the impatience of self-love. 



POWER OF HABIT. 203 



©OWEI^ OF Y}RBW. 

Habit is a cable. We weave the thread of it 
every day, and at length we cannot break it. The 
chains of habit are generally too small to be felt, until 
they are too strong to be broken. To one who mur- 
mured because he rebuked him for a small matter, 
Plato replied: "Custom is no small matter. A custom 
or habit of life does frequently alter the natural incli- 
nation for good or evil." After a series of years, 
winding up a watch at a certain hour, it becomes so 
much of a routine as to be done in utter unconscious- 
ness; meanwhile the mind and body are engaged in 
something different. 

Habit constantly strengthens all our active exer- 
tions. Whatever we do often, we become more and 
more apt to do. A snuff-taker begins with a pinch of 
snuff per day, and ends with a pound or two every 
month. Swearing begins in anger ; it ends by ming- 
ling itself with ordinary conversation. 

Habits of speech, when formed in early life, are the 
most ineradicable of all habits; and this one, I believe, 
is absolutely beyond the reach of any discipline, and 
even of prolonged association with good speakers. In 
England I observed many people in a constant 
struggle with their A, overcoming and being over- 
come, and sometimes triumphing when victory was 
defeat. 

Bad habits are the thistles of the heart, and every 



204 WELL-SrRINGS OF TRUTH. 

indulgence of them is a seed from which will come 
forth a new crop of rank weeds. There are habits 
contracted by bad example or bad management, before 
we have judgment to discern their approaches, or 
because the eye of reason is laid asleep, or has not 
compass of view sufficient to look around on every 
quarter. 

It was a quaint and singularly wise remark, by a 
modern essayist, that no one's example is so danger- 
ous to us as our own; for when we have done a cer- 
tain thing once, it is so much easier to do it again. It 
is the first step which counts, in evil as well as in 
good. The tendency of human nature to form habits, 
to run in grooves, is one of its most marked character- 
istics. Fortunately for us, it has its good side as well 
as its bad side. If we can only too easily form a 
habit of petulance, of ill-temper, we can also, by try- 
ing, form a habit of self-control ; and each fresh vic- 
tory over ourselves is easier than the first. 

A habit of application is, it would be safe to say, of 
as much importance to almost any great man as is his 
genius. Not that any amount of application can make 
a dull man brilliant; but that without steady applica- 
tion a brilliant man might almost as well be dull, as far 
as anything that he is likely to accomplish is concerned. 
" Perseverance is genius," several great men have 
said, in slightly varying phrase ; but this is not true. 
Perseverance is only the right hand of genius. Some- 
thing is breathed into a man at his birth — a divine 
fire, a gift of God — which makes great things possible 
to him, while to his brother in the next cradle they 



POWER OF HABIT. 205 

would be impossible forever. But having received this 
divine fire, he must give it fuel. It is the sign that he 
must work more, and not less than his fellows; and so 
there is no one thing so remarkable in the history of 
our great men as their habits of prodigious applica- 
tion. 

The serpent of appetite does not begin to hurt 
until it has wound itself around its victim, then it 
tightens, strangles, and crushes, until the bones crack, 
the blood flows, eyes start from sockets, brain reels 
and tongue leadens ; yet with all these examples before 
him, the victim goes on, till too late to stop his pas- 
sage over the dark, fitful river. 

The New York " Herald " says that four-fifths of 
the five thousand bodies that reach the Morgue in 
that city every year are sent there by drunkenness. It 
is related of the poet Burns, that, after he became a 
slave to his great enemy, strong drink, he once said 
that " if a barrel of rum was placed in one corner of 
the room, and a loaded cannon in another pointing 
toward him, ready to be fired if he approached the 
barrel, he had no choice but to go for the rum." If 
the chain which binds a man, when wound about him 
in its full strength, is so great, what shall be said of 
those who thoughtlessly forge the first links ? Are 
you forging any ? 

Of all the kings of the earth, there is not one who 
rules so many people as King Habit. Almost every 
man, woman and child obeys him, both the good and 
the bad, the wise and the foolish. It is strange that 
each person creates this King Habit for himself first, 



206 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

^nd then bows before him. And this is the way in 
which King Habit is created. A man does something 
or other one day, without thinking much about it; for 
instance, he plays with his watch-chain while he is talk- 
ing to a friend ; a few days afterwards he meets 
another friend, and as he talks to him, again his fingers 
get to the same place, while he is thinking of some- 
thing to say; next day he is chatting with another 
friend, and again he twitches and twirls his chain, and 
after a little while he can hardly get a word out unless 
he is fidgeting with his watch-chain. He has by 
degrees made a King Habit for himself, which he may 
have great trouble in driving from his throne. 

There was once a member of Parliament who had 
got into a habit of always putting his hand under his 
coat, and pulling at the strings at the back of his waist- 
coat while he was speaking. A rival who had noticed 
this trick, one day when the other was going to make 
a great speech, managed to cut the strings off. It is 
said that the poor man got up, began his speech, put 
his hands to pull the waistcoat strings, found they 
were gone, lost the thread of his argument — began 
again, coughed, stammered, stuck, and at last sat down, 
covered with confusion. King Habit was too strong 
for him. He had got into the way of pulling his 
waistcoat strings when he spoke, and without them he 
could not get on.. This was only a silly habit, but 
habits that are good and habits that are bad are 
formed in the same way, and rule over us in like man- 
ner; therefore we ought to take care what kind of 
kings we are setting upon the throne. 



POWER OF HABIT. 20/ 

Nearly all the disagreeable habits which people 
take up, come at first from mere accident, or want of 
thought. They might easily be dropped, but they are 
persisted in until they become second nature. Stop 
and think before you allow yourself to form them. 

The Orientals portray the growth and power of a 
bad habit by the following fable : " As Abdallah lin- 
gered over his morning repast, a little fly lighted on his 
goblet, took a sip and was gone. It came again and 
again, increased its charms, became bolder and bolder, 
grew in size until it presented the likeness of a man. 
It consumed Abdallah's meat, so that he grew thin and 
weak, while his guest became great and strong. Then 
contention arose between them, and the youth smote 
the demon, so that he departed, and the youth rejoiced 
at his deliverance. But the demon soon came again, 
charmingly arrayed, and was restored to favor. On 
the morning the youth came not to his teacher. The 
mufti, searching, found him in his chamber, lying dead 
upon his divan. His visage was black and swollen, 
and on his throat was the pressure of a finger, broader 
than the palm of a mighty man. His treasures were 
gone. In the garden the mufti discovered the foot- 
prints of a giant, one of which measured six cubits.'' 

Bentham says, " Like flakes of snow that fall unper- 
ceived upon the earth, the seemingly unimportant 
events of life succeed one another. As the snow 
gathers together, so are our habits formed. No single 
flake that is added to the pile produces a sensible 
change. No single action creates, however it may 
exhibit, a man's character ; but as the tempest hurls 



208 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

the avalanche down the mountain, and overwhelms the 
inhabitant and his habitation, so passion, acting upon 
the elements of mischief, which pernicious habits have 
brought together by imperceptible accumulation, may 
overthrow the edifice of truth and virtue. 

" Habit," says St. Augustine, " if not resisted, be- 
comes necessity." Dr. Johnson has well expressed the 
same truth, " The diminutive chains of habit are seldom 
heavy enough to be felt till they are too strong to be 
broken." As Archbishop Whately has said, "It is 
important to keep in mind that habits are formed, not 
at one stroke, but gradually and insensibly; so that, 
unless vigilant care be employed, a great change may 
come over the character without our being conscious 
of any." 

What power there is in habit ! Are not all men, 
for the most part, controlled by their habits? True, a 
man can will to cross the current of his habits, but it is 
rarely done. And when one does summon courage to 
make the attempt, it is then very like crossing a swollen 
stream with a frail canoe — there is a mighty drift, and 
the landing is not straight across from the starting 
point, but far below it. 

It is the habitual thought that frames itself into our 
life. It affects us even more than our intimate social 
relations do. Our confidential friends have not as 
much to do in shaping our lives as the thoughts have 
which we harbor. 

A very profane man was once overtaken in a furi- 
ous storm. The forest trees were falling upon every 
side, and in alarm he looked around for a place of 



MAN AND CIRCUMSTANCES. 200, 

refuge. Just then a giant oak fell across his path, and 
he crept beneath its protecting roots, where he lay 
trembling with fear until the storm abated. 

On reaching home his pious neighbor said to him: 

"My friend, what were thy thoughts while under 
the tree ?" 

"Well," he replied, "I could think of nothing but an 
oath, but I didn't dare to speak it for fear of the Al- 
mighty." 

What a fearful state in which to face death ! 

His heart full of the blackness of profanity, which in 
this hour of deadly peril rose up with the overpowering 
impulse of a life-long habit. 

How different would have been his feelings had he 
always taught his heart and lips to love and praise the 
God whom he so greatly feared ! 



CQan and (Si^gumstanges. 

If you cannot find a place to fit you, strive to fit the place in which you 
find yourself. 

Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, 

When our deep plots do pall ; and that should teach us 

There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 

Rough-hew them how we will. 

It is not the situation which makes the man, but the 
man who makes the situation. A freeman may be in 
chains. A slave may sit on a throne. He who fills 
the situation exalts or debases it. Martyrs glorified 

14 



2IO WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

the scaffold. Christ transformed the cross from a gib- 
bet into the most glorious symbol of the ages. 

Never complain of your birth, your employment, or 
your hardships. Never murmur and think that it 
would have been better for you to have had a different 
position in life. God understands his own plan, and 
he knows what you need a great deal better than you 
do. It is nothing new that the patient should dislike 
his medicines, or any proof that they are poisons. 
Bring yourself to receive God's will, and do his work 
in your lot and sphere, under your cloud of obscurity, 
and against all your temptations. 

Let us learn that to be engaged in lowly employ- 
ment is no hardship. If a great king should put his 
lowest subject to doing a task he had set before his 
most trusted friend, think you the subject could com- 
plain of harsh treatment? God called Moses his 
friend, and honored him with an intimacy he has 
allowed no other human being, talking with him face 
to face; and yet this very Moses was set to tending 
sheep for forty years. Who are we, that we should 
think lowly toil a hardship, and murmur against it? 

Your neighbor, no better nor abler than you, is left 
in wealth and high position, while you are set to lowly 
toil ; will you conclude that God honors him and dis- 
honors you? Oh, when will Christians learn to look 
at circumstances no longer through the distorting 
medium of the world's glasses, but through the clear 
lens of God's word of truth? 

To deny that man is, in a sense, the creature of 
circumstances, is equal to the denial that two and two 



MAN AND CIRCUMSTANCES. 211 

make four; and to deny that man cannot make cir- 
cumstances, is equal to affirming that two and two 
make five. It is a painful fact, but there is no denying 
it, the mass are the tools of circumstances; thistledown 
on the breeze, straw on the river, their course is 
shaped for them by the currents and eddies of the 
stream of life ; but only in proportion as they are 
things, not men and women. Man was meant to be 
not the slave, but the master of circumstances ; and 
in proportion as he recovers his humanity, in every 
sense of the great obsolete word — in proportion as he 
gets back the spirit of manliness, which is self-sacrifice, 
affection, loyalty to an idea beyond himself, a God 
above himself, so far will he rise above circumstances 
and wield them at his will. 

Place a young girl under the care of a kind-hearted 
woman, and she, unconsciously herself, grows into a 
graceful lady. Place a boy in the establishment of 
thorough-going, straightforward business men, and 
the boy becomes a self-reliant, practical business man. 
Children are susceptible creatures, and circumstances, 
scenes and actions always impress. As you influence 
them, not by arbitrary rules, not by stern example 
alone, but a thousand other ways that speak through 
beautiful forms, pictures, etc., so they will grow. 

Providence throws about us an intricate network 
of circumstances, influences and responsibilities from 
which we cannot honorably escape, and before we are 
ready to begin the survey of life's pathway, it is 
already marked out for us; ay, and footworn in some 
directions we never meant to follow. A light supper, 



212 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

a good night's sleep, and a fine morning have often 
made a hero of the same man who, by indigestion, a 
restless night, and a rainy morning would have proved 
a coward. 

Spare moments are the gold-dust of time; and 
Young was writing a true as well as a striking line, 
when he taught that "Sands make the mountain, and 
moments make the year." Of all, the portions of our 
life, spare moments are the most fruitful in good or 
evil. They are the gaps through which temptations 
find the easiest access to the garden of the soul. 
Quick is the succession of human events. The cares 
of to-day are seldom the cares of to-morrow, and when 
we lie down at night we may safely say to most of our 
troubles, "Ye have done your worst, and we shall meet 
no more." 

Sometimes men leap from obscurity to fame in a" 
day. One of this rare sort was Leon Gambetta. On 
a certain day in 1868 Jules Favre, the renowned advo- 
cate, statesman and academician, had a great cause to 
plead; a cause, however, more political than legal. 
But that day he was ill ; some one must take his 
place; and at a somewhat rash venture, he chose as 
his substitute an almost absolutely unknown, out-at- 
elbows, loud-talking Bohemian cafe-orator. M. Favre 
knew Gambetta but little; and mainly knew him as an 
ardent and out-spoken Republican. The mere issue 
of the trial, which was that of certain editors for open- 
ing their columns to the Baudin subscription, was 
nothing. At a time when, under the Empire, free 
speech was forbidden the Republicans on the platform, 



MAN AND CIRCUMSTANCES. 21 3 

such trials were seized upon by Republican orators as 
the occasions of fierce attacks upon the Napoleonic 
regime. What was needed, then, was a bold, eloquent, 
red-hot Republican, who would stand up and lash the 
Empire without mercy before a bench of Imperial 
judges. Gambetta electrified all France by his speech. 
It was a tremendous indictment against Napoleonism. 
Never did an orator produce more immediate or 
more overwhelming effect. The broad road of politi- 
cal fortune lay open before him. 

Under the murky threats of the years ahead of us, 
it is the duty of the pastor, the pulpit, the press, poli- 
tics, and the police — the five giant powers of these 
modern ages — to join arms and go forward in one 
phalanx for the execution of all those just public enact- 
ments which shut places of temptation, and leave a 
man a good chance to be born right the second time, 
by being born right the first time. 

Few people, I imagine, realize the extreme dullness 
of the life of the poor. Cut off from the many inter- 
ests which education or the possession of money gives, 
they have little left but the " trivial round, the common 
task," which indeed furnishes them with "room to deny 
themselves," but it is hardly, in their case at least, "the 
road to bring them daily nearer to God." This is 
especially true with regard to those men who cannot 
read. Unable to comprehend the ever-living interest 
of watching public affairs, prevented by ignorance, 
from following even in outline the action of nations, 
they are thrown back on the affairs of their neighbors, 
and center all their interest in the sayings and 



214 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

doings of quarrelsome Mr. Jones or much-abused 
Mrs. Smith. 

It is difficult for those of us to whom the world 
seems almost too full of interest to realize the deaden- 
ing dullness of some of these lives. Let us imagine 
for an instant all knowledge of history, geography, art, 
science and language blotted out; all interests in poli- 
tics, social movements, discoveries, obliterated; no 
society pleasures to anticipate; no trials of skill nor 
tests of proficiency in work or play to look forward to; 
no money at command to enable us to plan some 
pleasure for a friend or dependant; no books always 
at hand (the old friend waiting silently till their 
acquaintance is renewed, and the new ones standing 
ready to be learned and loved); no opportunities of 
getting change of scene and idea; no memories laden 
with pleasures of travel; no objects of real beauty to 
look at. What would our lives become? 

And yet this is a true picture of the minds of 
thousands of the poorer classes whose time is passed 
in hard, monotonous work, or occupied in the petty cares 
of many children, and in satisfying the sordid wants of 
the body. In some cases precarious labor adds the 
element of uncertainty to the other troubles, an 
element which, by the fact of its bringing some interest, 
is enjoyed by the men, but adds tenfold to the many 
cares of the house-wife. 

You are a manufacturer, or a merchant, or a 
mechanic, or a man of leisure, or a student, or a sew- 
ing-woman. God wants each one of you to serve him 
where you are. You have your business, use it for 



AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION. 21 5 

God. Order it in a godly manner. Do not allow any 
wickedness in it. Give godly wages; preach Jesus 
to your clerks, not by a long face, but by being like 
him, doing good. Use your profits for God, feeding 
the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, com- 
forting the wretched, spreading the gospel far and 
wide. What a field you have to glorify God in, just 
where you are ! If you have nothing, use your tools 
for him ; he can glorify himself with them as easily as 
he could with a sheperd's stick, an ox-goad, a sling, or 
two mites. A poor girl who had nothing but a sew- 
ing-machine used it to aid a feeble church ; all her 
earnings above her needs were given towards build- 
ing a house of worship, and in a year she paid more 
than others a hundred times richer than she. So you 
can do if you will. Think of the widow with her two 
mites, the woman with the alabaster box, and Dorcas 
and her garments ; you can do as much, and have as 
great a reward. 

«o» il>4>ii>-ffr>]|'-tf-<i | --<rH | ♦»» 

<p[N Ounce op E?^eyenjpion. 

" He who is false to present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and will see 
the defect when the weaving Of a lifetime is unrolled." 

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, 
says the old proverb. It is human nature to shirk 
and postpone, but true wisdom teaches a man to look 
before he leaps. Better try to find out what the end 
will be before you begin a doubtful undertaking. 
Look at the consequences of a sin before you decide 



21 6 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

to yield to temptation and present gratification. Many 
a life-long struggle and final despair would have been 
saved if an ounce of prevention, forethought, had 
been used, and common experience accepted in time. 

Many people think that the old adage, " Prevention 
is better than cure," applies to everything except in- 
temperance, but that with drink, our philosophy is to 
wait until we discover we are fond of it, and then, and 
not till then, to relinquish it. Foster a bad habit till 
we become its slaves, and then break the shackles. Is 
it not better. never to let the shackles get on? 

There are no troubles that wear upon the temper 
and sap the foundations of all peace and comfort as 
do borrowed troubles; because there is no provision 
made in the divine economy for help to bear them. 
We have no promise that strength will be given to sus- 
tain us under the weight of imaginary burdens. Real 
trials, bravely and patiently borne, are moral tonics, 
strengthening and purifying in their influence, lifting 
the soul to higher levels and broader outlooks. But it 
is only by receiving them as they come, one at a time, 
and taking no thought for those of the morrow, that 
they will yield us the full measure of good with which 
they are fraught. 

An ounce of keep-your-mouth-shut is better than a 
pound of explanation after you have said it. An 
elderly farmer had a squeaky door in his house. It 
annoyed him. He tightened the screws in the hinges 
without avail. He planed off the threshold without 
making it any better. He told his neighbor about it, 
whose doors never squeaked, and asked his advice. 



AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION. 2 17 

"lie it" said his neighbor. He did, and the door 
stopped squeaking. There are some people who pass 
through this life like a squeaky door. The hinges of 
life need "ileing." Christianity will do it. There are 
infinite resources in the grace of God. 

The system that prevention is better than cure is 
infallible with little children — no one doubts that. Any 
parents who for want of rational precaution allowed 
their children to fall into the fire or the water, or to do 
one another some serious bodily harm, would be stig- 
matized as either wicked or insane. Yet, when the 
young people are growing up — and just at the most 
critical point of their lives — how often do these par- 
ents shut the stable-door after the steed is stolen? 

"Sir," said a shrewd old gentleman, when ques- 
tioned as to the character of one of his guests — "Sir, 
do you think I would ever let a young man inside my 
doors who was not fit to marry my daughter?" 

If it be true, as a consummate judge of human 
nature has observed, 

" That not a vanity is given in vain," 

it is also true that there is scarcely a single passion 
that may not be turned to some good account if pru- 
dently rectified and skilfully turned into the road of 
some neighboring virtue. It cannot be violently bent, 
or unnaturally forced towards an object of a totally 
opposite nature, but may be gradually inclined towards 
a correspondent but superior affection. Anger, ha- 
tred, resentment and ambition, the most restless and 
turbulent passions which shake and distract a human 
soul, may be led to become the most active opposers of 



2l8 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

sin, after having been its most successful instruments. 
Our anger, for instance, which can never be totally 
subdued, may be made to turn against ourselves, for 
our weak and imperfect obedience ; our hatred, against 
every species of vice ; our ambition, which will not be 
discarded, may be ennobled — it will not change its 
name, but its object, — it will despise what it lately val- 
ued, nor be contented to grasp at less than immor- 
tality. 

Thus the joys, fears, hopes, desires, all the passions 
and affections which separate in various currents from 
the soul, will, if directed into their proper channels, 
after having fertilized wherever they have flowed, 
return again to swell and enrich the parent source. 

That the very passions which appear the most 
uncontrollable and unpromising may be intended, in 
the great scheme of Providence, to answer some im- 
portant purpose, is remarkably evidenced in the char- 
acter and history of the apostle Paul. A remark on 
this subject by an ingenious old Spanish writer, which 
I will here take the liberty to translate, will better illus- 
trate my meaning: 

* " To convert the bitterest enemy into the most 
zealous advocate is the work of God for the instruc- 
tion of man. Plutarch has observed that the medical 
science would be brought to the utmost perfection, 
when poison should be converted into physic. Thus 
in the moral disease of Judaism and idolatry, our 
blessed Lord converted the adder's venom of Saul the 
persecutor into that cement which made Paul the 
chosen vessel. That manly activity, that restless 



AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION. 21 g 

ardour, that burning zeal for the law of his fathers, 
that ardent thirst for the blood of Christians, did the 
Son of God find necessary in the man who was one 
day to become the defender of his suffering people." 

To win the passions, therefore, over to the cause of 
virtue answers a much nobler end than their extinction 
would possibly do, even if that could be effected. But 
it is their nature never to observe a neutrality ; they 
are either rebels or auxiliaries ; and an enemy subdued 
is an ally obtained. If I may be allowed to change the 
allusion so soon, I would say that the passions also 
resemble fires, which are friendly and beneficial when 
under proper direction, but if suffered to blaze without 
restraint, they carry devastation along with them, and 
if totally extinguished, leave the benighted mind in a 
state of cold and comfortless inanity. 

But, in speaking of the usefulness of the passions 
as instruments of virtue, envy and lying must always 
be excepted^ These, I am persuaded, must either go 
on in still progressive mischief, or else be radically 
cured, before any good can be expected from the heart 
which has been infected with them ; for I never will 
believe that envy, though passed through all the moral 
strainers, can be refined into a virtuous emulation, or 
lying improved into an agreeable term for innocent 
invention. Almost all the other passions may be made 
to take an amiable hue; but these two must either be 
totally extirpated, or be always contented to preserve 
their original deformity, and to wear their native black. 



2 20 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 



©E^SISJTBNGY. 

" He who works and waits, wins." Is there any- 
where a truth settled on a broader foundation of fact ; 
stretching out into a wider area of experience ; or 
rising up into a higher and more radiant atmosphere 
of calm and certain hope, than this? 

-We say, stick to your work. Perseverance will 
conquer — always has conquered. And don't get out 
of heart if you fail at first. Most people have failed 
twice where they have succeeded once. Those who 
ever do anything worthy fail first. In fact, we can't 
learn to do some things till we fail. You are not the 
first man that has failed ; you will not be the last. 
Remember your old copy — "Rome was not built in a 
day." And that is not all ; Rome was never built 
aright until it was burned down several times. Fail 
and learn why. The lesson will redeem the failure. 
This leads to success. 

There was no feature more remarkable in the char- 
acter of Timour than his extraordinary perseverance. 
No difficulties ever led him to recede from what he had 
once undertaken ; and he often persisted in his efforts 
under circumstances which led all around him to 
despair. On such occasions, he used to relate to his 
friends an anecdote of his early life. " I once," he said, 
"was forced to take shelter from my enemies in a 
ruined building, where I sat alone for many hours. 
Desiring to divert my mind from my hopeless condi- 



PERSISTENCY. 221 

tion, I fixed my eyes on an ant, that was carrying a 
grain of corn, larger than itself, up a high wall. I 
numbered the efforts it made to accomplish this object. 
The grain fell sixty-nine times to the ground; but the 
insect persevered, and the seventieth time it reached the 
spot. This sight gave me courage at the moment, and 
I never forgot the lesson," 

For the best results there needs be the longest wait- 
ing. The true harvest is the longest in being reached. 
The failures come first, the successes last. The unsatis- 
factory is generally soonest seen. Everything that is 
good has to fight for existence and continuance in this 
world; and the gospel of Christ, which is supremely 
good, has the hardest fight to wage. 

A man needs pluck as well as piety. And pluck 
will sometimes accomplish what piety will not. But 
pluck and piety, grit and grace, always go well together. 
" A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck." Men who 
sit down upon the stool of do-nothing, waiting for 
something good to turn up are doomed to disappoint- 
ment. But those who have the pluck to take hold of 
the best thing at hand and work with a will, are on 
the high road to success. Young men, try it. 

I would bid you stand up to your work, whatever 
it may be, and not be afraid of it ; not in sorrow or 
contradiction to yield, but pushing on towards the goal. 
And don't suppose that people are hostile to you in 
the world. You will rarely find anybody designedly 
doing you ill. You may often feel as if the world is 
obstructing you, more or less ; but you will find that 
to be because the world is traveling in a different way 



22 2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

from you, and rushing on its own path. Each man 
has only an extremely good will to himself — and is 
moving on towards his object. 

It is said that an ant holds on longer and tighter to 
his burdens than any other living creature. When 
this little insect undertakes to do anything, he never 
gives up until dead. I have been thinking, little 
friends, what a good thing it would be if all boys and 
girls were like the hard-working, busy ants. Not in 
looks, I don't mean, but in actions. If when they have 
a hard lesson they would sit down to learn it with as 
much determination as a weak little ant goes to work 
to carry home a load as large as himself, how surely 
would the lesson be learned. The ant does not sit 
sighing and fretting because it is so heavy, but he 
takes fast hold and drags it if he cannot carry it, or he 
gets another ant to help him, and they both work just 
as fast and as hard as they can until it is done. What 
good lessons you would all have if you did the same 
way. Are you not as wise and smart as a little 
common black ant? 

There is a tree in Jamaica called the life tree, 
whose leaves grow even when severed from the plant. 
It is impossible to kill it, save by fire. 

Says Mr. Moody: " In St Louis I went into a 
place to see a man on business. One of these com- 
mercial travelers came in. He wanted to sell some 
jewelry. 'Get out,' said the proprietor,- 'I don't want to 
see your samples.' 'But you must,' said the man; T 
won't get out.' 'Get out,' said he again. T won't,' said 
the man, and he began to unpack. The man became 



PERSISTENCY. 223 

interested, and so did I. He showed him a fine lot of 
goods, diamonds, pearls and precious stones set in 
gold, and he sold the man seven hundred dollars' 
worth. 

" 'Well,' I thought, 'that fellow is smart.' When he 
had sold his little bill he said to the merchant : ' Now 
I have one more thing to show you ; the best thing 
I've got,' and he began to go down deeper into his cases, 
and I beean to wonder what could he mean. Better than 
gold, diamonds, and pearls ! and I got up closer, and 
the merchant did too. The drummer took out a little 
case and opened it, and there was a Bagster bible, and 
he began to turn it over, and said: 'This is the pearl of 
great price; this is better than all earthly possessions; 
it is God's Word. Sir, are you a Christian?' I never 
heard anything like that." 

The force of will is a potent element in determin- 
ing longevity. This single point must be granted 
without argument, that of two men, every way alike 
and similarly circumstanced, the one who has the 
greater courage and grit will be the longer lived. One 
does not need to practice medicine long to learn that 
men die who might just as well live if they resolved to 
live, and that myriads who are invalids could become 
healthy if they had the native or acquired will to vow 
they would be so. Those who have no other quality 
favorable to life, whose bodily organs are nearly all 
diseased, to whom each day is a day of pain, who are 
beset by life-shortening influences, yet do live by will 
alone. 

Socrates at an extreme old age learned to play on 



2 24 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

musical instruments. Cato at eighty years of age be- 
gan to study the Greek language. Plutarch, when 
between seventy and eighty, commenced the study of 
Latin. Bocaccio was thirty years of age when he 
commenced his study in light literature; yet he 
became one of the greatest masters of the Tuscan 
dialect, Dante and Plutarch being the other two. Sir 
Henry Spellman neglected the sciences in his youth, 
but commenced the study of them when he was 
between fifty and sixty years of age. After this time 
he became a most learned antiquarian and lawyer. 
Dr. Johnson applied himself to the Dutch language but 
a few years before his death. Ludovocio Mondal- 
desco, at the great age of one hundred and fifteen 
years, wrote the memoirs of his own times. Ogilby, 
the translator of Homer and Virgil, was unacquainted 
with Latin and Greek, till he was past fifty. Franklin 
did not commence his philosophical researches till he 
had reached his fiftieth year. Dryden, in his sixty- 
eighth year, commenced the translation of the /Eneid, 
his most pleasing production. Thousands of ex- 
amples of men who commenced a new study either 
for a livelihood or amusement at an advanced age 
could be cited. But every one familiar with the biog- 
raphy of distinguished men will recollect individual 
cases enough to convince him that none but the sick 
and indolent can say, " I am too old to learn." 

He who keeps himself strained up to his highest 
running speed all the time does not make the best 
progress on a long journey. There is much differ- 
ence between a spurt and a four-mile course. And 



DECISION. 2 25 

when you come to make a long journey "Dobbin " and 
his " jog-trot" will beat "Eclipse" or any other racer 
at his best. Do not mistake morbid nervousness for 
persistency. The difference between perseverance 
and obstinacy, is that one oftener comes of a strong 
will, and the other of a strong wont. 

■ Never be cast down by trifles. If a spider breaks 
his thread twenty times, twenty times will he mend it 
again. Make up your mind to do a thing and you will 
do it. Fear not if trouble comes upon you ; keep up 
your spirits, though the day be a dark one: 

" Troubles never stop forever, 

The darkest day will pass away. 



-4-J- 



Dbgision. 

Decision of character is one of the most impor- 
tant of human qualities, philosophically considered. 
Speculation, knowledge, is not the chief end of man; 
it is action. " Give us the man," shout the multitude, 
"who will step forward and take the responsibility." 
He is instantly the idol, the lord and the king among 
men. He, then, who would command among his fel- 
lows must excel them more in energy of will than in 
power of intellect. 

In Nebuchadnezzar's image, the lower the mem- 
bers^ the coarser the metal : the farther off the time, the 
more unfit. To-day is the golden opportunity, to- 
morrow will be the silver season, next day but the 

15 



2 26 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

brazen one, and so on, till at last I shall come to the 
toes of clay, and be turned to dust. 

No man ever served God by doing things to-mor- 
row; if we honor Christ and are blest, it is by the 
things we do to-day. Whatever you do for Christ 
throw your whole soul into it. Everybody's woYk 
is nobody's work. Begin now to carry out the good 
resolutions you intended putting into operation last 
year. 

There is always a joy in duties performed ; and 
promptness in the execution heightens that joy. To 
wait and look on a business we ought to do at once, 
enervates and disheartens ; to arise and do it imme- 
diately, strengthens and enlarges the heart. Delay 
begets hesitancy and timidity ; direct performance 
brings zeal and courage. They that wait upon the 
Lord renew their strength, but they that postpone 
present duties till to-morrow, are weaker for them 
than to-day. Promptness in duties, then, gives greater 
strength for new duties. Enduring hardness as a 
good soldier in one campaign qualifies the Christian 
for more manly feats in the next. Christian prompti- 
tude helps to develop that noble, full stature of char- 
acter and life which the gospel enjoins — gives grace to 
discipleship, and energy and efficiency to the churches. 

Earnestness commands the respect of mankind. 
Decision of character is a virtue to be sought after 
with ever increasing diligence. A wavering, vacillating, 
dead-and-alive Christian does not get the respect of 
the church or the world. This yielding spirit, this 
" doing as the rest did," has ruined thousands. A 



DECISION. 227 

young man is invited by vicious companions to visit 
the public-house, the theatre, the gambling-room, or 
other haunts of licentiousness. He becomes dissi- 
pated, spends his time, loses his credit, squanders his 
property, and at last sinks into an untimely grave. 
What ruined him ? Simply " doing what the rest did." 
The sweetest child that ever looked up from a fond 
mother's arms, if left to itself, if unrestrained by 
parental authority — unrenewed and unblessed by the 
grace of God — may become as reprobate as Hophni 
and Phinehas. May the curse that fell on Eli's house 
be far from each one of us forever. 

Opportunity, like the Sibyl, diminishes her offering, 
and increases her price, at each visit. Speed is the 
helmet of Pluto, says an old writer. It is important to 
keep in mind that in some cases, where, as Bacon ex- 
presses it, "not to decide is to decide," a delay may 
amount to a wrong decision; and in other cases may 
at least produce serious evil. There was once a very 
learned and acute lord chancellor, none of whose deci- 
sions were ever reversed, but who very often decided, 
virtually, against both parties, by delaying his decision 
until both were beggared by law expenses, and broken 
down in mind and body by anxious care. 

The effect of mind upon body is, as to experiment, 
a matter within the reach of every one. It does not 
demand costly apparatus or expensive chemicals. So 
that more or less metaphysical knowledge is within the 
reach of all. 

It is here suggested that the habit of indecision is 
injurious to body as well as to mind. And also that 



2 28 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

the habit of decision strengthens body as well as mind. 
An undecided person is, so long- as he is in the un- 
decided state, in a worry and fret of mind. Mentally 
he is on a see-saw, now half descending on this hand, 
now half on that, until, weaned and disgusted, he 
sickens of the matter altogether. 

An hour of such mental agitation wearies the body. 
Something has been used up. It is an invisible some- 
thing, but it is none the less potent for steadying nerve 
and strengthening muscle. Let us remember that the 
strongest known elements in nature — electricity, caloric 
and all explosive gaseous forces — are invisible. In- 
deed, visibility constitutes but a small part in the sum 
of what is. 

Without some object or purpose on which to con- 
centrate this mental as well as physical force the body 
soon tires. Why is mere waiting so wearisome ? So 
well as it can be expressed in words, mind force, while 
demanding something to concentrate its power on, is 
at the same time losing such force uselessly. But sup- 
pose in such weary waiting an ^interesting companion 
appears, and the effort of conversation and interchange 
of thought concentrates this mind power in a single 
channel on one given point. The result is both mind 
and body are rested through the very exercise of this 
force. 

It has been stated that the mortality among the 
London policemen is greater than among laboring 
men, and one reason given for this is that their walk- 
ing their beats is an employment almost objectless and 
purposeless in its nature, and like waiting is one which 



DECISION. 2 29 

wastes its mental force, and with mental its physical 
force. 

It may be better then in perplexing circumstances 
to make up one's mind to decide and "go it blind" 
rather than not make it up at all. Or, perhaps, it may 
be better, if there be time, to summon up sufficient 
will power so as to drive the subject for a time out of 
one's head and wait for circumstances and a clearer 
brain to decide. 

This point involves also the necessity of doing but 
one thing at a time. Or, in other words, of concen- 
trating all will and strength for the time being on the 
single purpose. Indecision involves the attempted 
doing of too many things at once. Hesitation half ties 
its shoestring and thinks of something else. Hesita- 
tion speaks but half its mind and stammers in doubt 
whether to speak out the other half. Hesitation is 
slovenliness. Chronic hesitation seems to imply weak 
or unexercised will, weak mind and weak body. The 
firm grasp on the assailant's collar is as much a men- 
tal as a physical act. The holding oneself in the face 
of danger when all the danger is known and the head 
is cool, is entirely a mental act and a decided act. It 
is suggested, then, that the cultivation of decision is a 
means of developing not only mental force but physi- 
cal health. 

Let it here be understood that these are but partial 
statements. Let it be understood that this is a subject 
which can only be discussed in part. By decision is 
not meant pig-headed obstinacy, which keeps on a cer- 
tain course right or wrong. This is not firmness at all. 



23O WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

It is the weakness of anger, spite and stupidity. A 
truly decided man may not be a consistent man, as 
many understand consistency. He may alter his mind 
and change his course from time to time as with new 
light and new knowledge he gains new convictions. 

In this connection it may be suggested that there 
are thousands who never really make up their minds 
at all. Circumstances or others decide for them. 
They do at the last moment the only thing left for 
them to do. If on a burning ship, it is doubtful if they 
possessed the will and energy to* construct a life raft, 
but when finally driven to bay by the flames they 
would jump overboard. Men who really control them- 
selves control others. Many more are led than are 
leaders. It's the main road of custom and habit which 
is most traveled. Few have the courage to start new 
paths for themselves. Yet it is among the possibilities 
that every complete life must have a peculiar path of 
its own, but a path only to be cut out. 



©OLE^AJfllON. 

" Pity and need 
Make all flesh kin. There is no caste in blood, 
Which runneth of one hue, nor caste in tears, 
Which trickle salt with all ; neither comes man 
To birth with tilka-mark stamped on the brow, 
Nor sacred thread on neck. Who doth right deeds , 
Is twice-born, and who doeth ill deeds vile." 

Long ago my experience taught me not to dispute 
with anybody about tastes and whims ; one might as 
well argue about what you can see in the fire. It is of 



TOLERATION. 23 I 

no use ploughing the air, or trying to convince a man 
against his will in matters of no consequence. It is 
useless to try to end a quarrel by getting angry over 
it; it is much the same as pouring oil on a fire to 
quench it, and blowing coals with the bellows to put 
them out. Some people like rows — I don't envy their 
choice; I'd rather walk ten miles to get out of a dis- 
pute than half a mile to get into one. I have often 
been told to be bold, and take the bull by the horns, 
but, as I rather think that the amusement is more 
pleasant than profitable, I shall leave it to those who 
are so cracked already that an ugly poke with a horn 
would not damage their skulls. Solomon says, " Leave 
off strife before it be meddled with," which is much the 
same as if he had said, "Leave off before you begin." 
When you see a mad dog, don't argue with him unless 
you are sure of your logic ; better get out of his way, 
and if anybody calls you a coward you need not call 
him a fool — everybody knows that. Meddling in 
quarrels never answers; let hornets' nests alone, and 
don't pull down old houses over your own head. 
Meddlers are sure to hurt their own characters : if you 
scrub other people's pigs, you will soon need scrubbing 
yourself. It is the height of folly to interfere between 
a man and his wife, for they will be sure to leave off 
fighting each other and turn their whole strength upon 
you — and serve you right too; if you will put your 
spoon into other people's broth and it scalds you* who 
is to blame but yourself? 

Of Mr. John Henderson it is observed that the 
oldest of his friends never beheld him otherwise than 



232 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

calm and collected. It was a state of mind he retained 
under all circumstances. During his residence at 
Oxford, a student of the neighboring college, proud of 
his logical acquirements, was solicitous of a private 
disputation with the renowned Henderson. Some 
mutual friends introduced him, and having chosen 
his subject, they conversed for some time with equal 
candor and moderation ; but Henderson's antagonist, 
perceiving his confutation inevitable (forgetting the 
character of a gentleman, and with a resentment 
engendered by his former arrogance), threw a full 
glass of wine in his face. Henderson, without alter- 
ing his features, or changing his position, gently 
wiped his face, and then cooly replied, "This, sir, is a 
digression; now for the argument." 

The Emperor Antoninus said, " It becomes a man 
to love even those that offend him." Epictetus said, 
" A man hurts himself by injuring me : what, then, 
shall I therefore hurt myself by injuring him?" 
Seneca observed, " In benefits it is a disgrace to be 
outdone ; in injuries, to get the better." 

"Politeness," says Witherspoon, "is real kindness 
kindly. expressed," — an admirable definition, and so brief 
that all may easily remember it. This is the sum and 
substance of all true politeness. Put it in .practice,, 
and all will be charmed with your manners. 

The apostle to the Indians, Rev. John Elliot, was 
characterized by his great love of peace. His advice 
to one in difficulty was, "Brother, compass them; learn 
the meaning of those three little words — bear, forbear,, 
and forgive." Nothing so increases reverence for 



TOLERATION. 233 

others as a great sorrow to one's self. It teaches one 
the depths of human nature. In happiness we are 
shallow, and deem others so. 

That man shall be immortal who liveth until stoned 
by another without fault. The blessed work of help- 
ing the world forward happily does not wait for per- 
fect men. The tale of divine pity was never believed 
from lips that were not felt to be moved by human pity. 

The last, best fruit, which comes late to perfec- 
tion, even in the kindliest soul, is tenderness towards 
the hard, forbearance towards the unforbearing, warmth 
of heart towards the misanthropic. It is only neces- 
sary to grow old to become more indulgent. I see no 
fault committed that I have not committed myself. 

An ill argument introduced with deference will 
procure more credit than the profoundest science 
with a rough, insolent, and noisy management. We 
do not like our friends the worse because they some- 
times give us an opportunity to rail at them heartily; 
their faults reconcile us to their virtues. Censure is 
like the lightning which strikes the highest mountains. 

Let that table which God hath pleased to give thee 
please thee. He that made the vessel knows her bur- 
den, and how to ballast her. He that made all things 
very good, cannot but do all things very well. If thou 
be content with a little, thou hast enough; if thou 
complainest, thou hast too much. 

One day you will be pleased with a, friend and the 
next clay disappointed in him. It will be so to the end; 
and you must make up your mjnd to it, and not quar- 
rel unless for very grave cause. Your friend, you 



234 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

have found out, is not perfect. Nor are you ; and you 
cannot expect to get much more than you give. You 
must look for much weakness, foolishness and vanity 
in human nature ; it is unhappy if you are too sharp 
in seeing them. 



(^ONSISUIBNGY. 

Cicero spoke it as the highest commendation of 
Cato's character, that he embraced philosophy, not for 
the sake of disputing like a philosopher, but living like 
one. 

The shortest and surest way to live with honor in 
the world is to be in reality what we would appear to 
be ; and, if we observe, we shall find that all human 
virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the 
practice and experience of them. The only true 
wisdom for boy or man is to bring the whole life into 
obedience to Christ, whose world we live in, and who 
has purchased us with his blood. Or as Dr. Bushnell 
has said of the puttingon of Christ as a garment of 
the needy soul : "There can be no choosing out here 
of shreds and patches from his divine beauty ; you 
must take the whole suit, else you cannot put him on. 
The garment is seamless, and cannot be divided." 

If any one speaks evil of you, let your life be such, 
that no one will believe him. Consistency is to speak 
as we think, to do as we pretend and profess to per- 
form, and make good what we promise, and really to 
be what we would seem and appear to be. 



CONSISTENCY. 235 

Among Noah's hearers none were more regular in 
attendance, nor more outspoken in sympathy and 
respect, than Sebed-lo-Sabad. Others reviled ; he 
confessed his acceptance of the truth. His con- 
versation with the preacher often turned upon the 
approaching Deluge. 

At first his neighbors believed him in earnest; but 
they soon noticed that he bated not a jot of interest in 
his farm or his merchandise. He builded, he planned, 
he lived as though there were no threatening storm. 
In vain the preacher warned him to make suitable 
preparation. He always gave some ready excuse ; 
and meanwhile flattered himself for accepting the truth 
and honoring the preacher. 

At last the storm burst. "Ah!" said he to his 
neighbors, "I knew it would come! I told you the 
preacher spake truth!" 

"Why then," they answered, "did you not flee to 
the ark, and we, perchance would have followed your 
example?" 

He breasted the storm and reached the ark's door. 
" Father Noah ! " he cried " open to me ! I knew, I 
always said you spake the truth. Open to me ! " 

"Not so, Sebed-lo-Sabad" (Servant of no service), 
was the reply. " Others disbelieved and are condemned 
therefor. You believed, but confirmed them in their 
unbelief by your own disobedience. Yours is the 
great guilt. The Almighty hath closed the door." 

A Christian when he makes a good profession, 
should be sure to make his profession good. It is sad 
to. see many walk in the dark themselves who carry a 



236 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

lantern for others. The whole complexion of a negro 
is less noticed than a single stain on the features of a 
white countenance. 

When you cast into the crucible of your laboratory 
a bit of mud and extract gold from it, you may be able 
to extract from the crucible of the materialism of your 
times, the law of conscience and the inflexible author- 
ity of duty. There are but three classes of men: the 
retrograde, the stationary, and the progressive. The 
man who is not living aright is sour within ; and the 
sour works out. He who lives aright is your sympa- 
thetic and generous man. Let your zeal begin upon 
yourself, then you may with justice extend it to your 
neighbors. 

Says an eminent Christian, "I have more trouble 
in my professional life with a certain class of conscien- 
tious persons than almost any other. Consciences, 
like men, are reasonable and unreasonable. It is hard 
to reason with an nnreasonable conscience. When 
you beat such an individual with logic, he angrily falls 
back upon his conscience and clings to his dogma like 
a saint to a God." 

If we would do as Jesus did, we must be his ser- 
vants ; if we would help to heal the evils of the world, 
we must ourselves be free from them ; if we would 
tend the plague-stricken, there must not be the plague 
in our own hearts. We must be consistent, and give 
proofs of our consistency. It was in vain for Seneca 
to declaim against luxury in villas which excited the 
envy of an emperor, or against greed with millions 
out at extortionate usury. Such declamations sound 



CONSISTENCY. 237 

hollow ; such appeals ring false. He who would help 
others, must not only show the way, but lead the way. 

God helps us in our prayers, but he does so in 
proportion as we admit his aid in the rest of our life. 
We cannot pray as we ought, unless we live as we 
ought. Our prayers will partake of our other infirmi- 
ties. We cannot at once collect ourselves and become 
other men in the presence of God from what we were 
just before. The test of our love is obedience. This 
is the touchstone; it sweeps away a whole mass of 
natural feeling, and shows what is gold and what is 
brass. 

It is really painful to be compelled to impute disin- 
genuousness to persons who manifest much religious 
zeal. But when men are found using such arguments 
and maintaining such principles, on some points, as on 
others they reprobate, it is impossible to give them 
credit for sincerity in the means resorted to, however 
sincere may be their belief in the goodness of their 
end. 

What is the true test of piety? Plain matter-of- 
fact, unecstatic obedience as of a child to a father; 
that is the test. The only true joy is born of such 
obedience. Ecstasies that come from any other 
source do not belong to the legitimate family circle 
of heavenly joys. They are the result of that which 
it does not take heaven to explain. They can be 
produced at any time and on any occasion by a com- 
bination of earthly forces. Singing can produce 
them. A sympathetic voice can charge the mystic 
thrill along the nerves till they tingle. Eloquence can 



238 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

produce them. How often under the orator's power 
men and women weep, groan and shout in loud 
acclaim! The mesmeric influence which hovers over 
a vast audience as electric lights hover over marsh 
lands during a summer heat can communicate by 
subtle and untraceable potency its deceptive and 
transitory excitement, so that the vast multitude shall 
be charged full of the current whose expression might 
deceive the very elect. 

Many suppose that this kind of feeling is legiti- 
mate, spiritual, and represents the real power of God. 
Yea, many gauge their piety by the presence or 
absence of these feelings ; which are feelings that 
reach no farther than the muscles, and have their 
home in nothing more divine than the nervous tissues. 
The piety of Jesus consisted in obedience. His great 
aim was to do the will of God. He loved God per- 
fectly, and he loved man perfectly, and so perfectly 
fulfilled the law ; and so had perfect happiness. 
Obedience to God lies in natural duties as truly as 
what are known as technically spiritual. The perfect 
life stands parent to the perfect joy. 

An inconsistent person may be as inconsistent in 
his charities as he is in his luxuries; for charity is, in 
truth, a sort of luxury. Many a man called benevo- 
lent is simply wasteful, and the cause of waste in 
others ; for to give away money without considering 
how far the recipient has a right to it, or will benefit 
by it, is no more an act of benevolence than is throw- 
ing down a handful of coppers to be scrambled for in 
the street. 



PRECISION. 239 



©DECISION. 

Precision — The habit of being precise in all that 
you do or say, is one of the most valuable traits of 
character. It contributes more to a success in life, 
moral as well as financial, than any other quality ex- 
cept honesty. It is an attainment that can only be 
acquired after long years of careful training and self- 
education. The habit of noticing little things, permit- 
ting nothing to escape your attention, is directly in the 
line of the acquirement of the faculty of preciseness. 
First, to take notice of everything, and then to know 
how to use to best advantage every such thing, — this 
is a large part of precision. 

One of the most important duties, connected with 
the prosecution of any business, is the habit of punctu- 
ality, and it can only be attained by the exercise of 
rare judgment on the part of the heads of departments. 
On this subject we cannot forbear quoting from Mr. 
De Vinne's excellent Price List for Printers : " Be 
punctual with all customers. To do this much discre- 
tion is needed. The work that one thinks may be 
done in two hours often takes three. Some allowance 
must be made for accidents and detentions. Allow 
for these and make, promises accordingly. To oblige 
a customer, it is frequently to the interest of the office 
to tax its resources severely, to do some work at great 
sacrifices, or even at positive loss. The willingness to 
oblige a customer is not always accompanied with a 



24O WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

corresponding ability. He who good-naturedly prom- 
ises more than he can perform, is much more likely to 
offend by his failure, than by his decided, but courteous 
refusal." 

Sou they says, "If you would be pungent, be brief; 
for it is with words as with sunbeams — the more they 
are condensed the deeper they burn." Long visits, 
long stories, long exhortations and long prayers sel- 
dom profit those who have to do with them. Life is 
short. Time is short. Moments are precious. Learn 
to condense, abridge and intensify. We can endure 
many an ache and ill if it is soon over, while even 
pleasures grow insipid and pain intolerable if they are 
protracted beyond the limits of reason and convenience. 
Learn to be brief. Lop off branches; stick to the 
main facts in your case. If you pray ask for what you 
would receive, and get through; if you speak tell your 
message, and hold your peace; boil down two words 
into one, and three into two. 

A cannon ball feebly propelled may fall short of 
the mark and be in vain, while a rifle ball urged on by 
a measureless force may bury itself deep in the heart 
of the obstacle. A fit and timely word, a warm God- 
speed to a struggling, desponding, half-despairing soul, 
a cheery commendation, a helping hand extended to 
a human brother or sister staggering under a burden 
of toil and care, or under a heavier burden of sin and 
shame, a brotherly exhortation, breath of prayer for 
some sick or needy one, has each behind it the Power 
of God, and may issue in results which Time cannot 
weigh — which only eternity can measure. 



PRECISION. 24I 

It is a vast error to suppose that it takes large 
words to state large thoughts, or that great truths 
require to be stated in a startling form. Nothing can 
be more simple, nothing can be more self-evident, 
more axiomatic, yet nothing can be more impressive, 
nothing (rightly viewed) can be more startling, than 
the statement : " Things and actions are what they are, 
and the consequences of them will be what they will 
be; why, then, should we desire to be deceived?" 
These plain, almost common-place, words come di- 
rectly home to the conscience ; they strip away 
the pretexts by which we have disguised ourselves 
from ourselves ; They bring us face to face with eter- 
nal realities. If men would but lay this to heart, that 
" Things and actions are what they are," that falsehood 
is falsehood ; stealing is stealing, no matter by what 
name you call it ; lust is lust ; sin is sin ; and " the 
consequences of them will be what they will be ; " it is 
not in created power to reverse or change or evade 
the result. 

The greater part of all the mischief of the world 
comes from the fact that men do not sufficiently under- 
stand their own aims. They have undertaken to build 
a tower, and spend no more labor on the foundation 
than would be necessary to erect a hut. Micawber- 
like, they live on from day to day, waiting for some- 
thing to turn up, hoping that some one else will do for 
them what they ought themselves to have done long 
since. They wonder why their own hearts are not 
filled with the blessings of grace, or their lives 
crowned with material success, and yet they shirk 

16 



242 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

every care, and dawdle away their time in the most 
unconcerned manner conceivable. Others throw an 
abundance of energy into their work, but for want of 
precision and accuracy, defeat their own object, and 
waste their energies as effectually as the idle and 
vicious. 

"That tenon does not fit the mortise by a quarter 
of an inch," said an employer to a young carpenter 
who had just begun to work for him. 

"I thought that for a garden gate you would not 
be particular, and it would make no difference," 
answered the young man. 

But it did make a difference. It made just the 
difference between the young man having a steady 
summer job at good wages, and having his time un- 
occupied upon his hands. The employer found no 
further fault; but when the gate was finished he paid 
the maker, without a word, and dismissed him. 

The next day there was another man in his place. 
He happened to be a man who thought it did make a 
difference how everything was done ; he always did his 
best and he kept his situation till the end of the season. 

So it happens. Frequently some little thing which 
was not expected to attract attention is noticed by 
some one to whom the excellence of the work has 
commended itself, and the man who has made pains- 
taking the rule of all his labor is surprised by a 
sudden and unlooked-for accession of good fortune. 
He has been brought into notice by some uncon- 
sidered trifle, which was well done, merely because it 
was his to do everything as well as possible. 



. TACT. 24J 

On the other hand, how many a man who is lament- 
ing his ill fortune, and doesn't know what to attribute it 
to, might trace it to some such carelessness in the way of 
doing his work as that which doomed the young carpen- 
ter to a summer of profitless idleness. Men are by no 
means always told by what particular act they are 
judged; but any bad performance is always liable to 
mar a fortune. 



©ACT. 

True politeness is to say 

The kindest thing in the kindest way. 

Lord Bacon advises that, in things that are tender 
and unpleasing, it is good to break the ice by some 
words of less weight, and to reserve the more weighty 
voice to come in as by chance, so that he may be asked 
the question upon the other's speech, as Narcissus did, 
in relating to Claudius the marriage of Messalina and 
Silius. 

A joke never gains an enemy, but often loses a 
friend. It is the part of a prudent man to conciliate 
the minds of others, and to turn them to his own ad- 
vantage. A writer puts the case wisely when he 
advises as follows : Never join with your friend when 
he abuses his horse or his wife, unless the one is about 
to be sold, and the other to be buried. Kind words 
cost nothing ; they are better to use than any other. 

It is extremely hard at times for us to give the 
"soft answer, " but the harder it is the more sure may 



244 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

we feel that a soft answer is what our own chafed 
spirit at least needs. Hasty words not only rasp the 
one they are thrown at, but also the one that gives 
vent to them. Be careful how you give way to them. 

The world is a looking-glass and gives back to 
every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, 
and it will turn and look surly upon you; laugh at it 
and with it and it is a pleasant, kind companion. 

Uniform good nature and loving service will make 
a company of street gamins tractable. Good-tempered 
persistency will wear away the rock of a criminal's 
obstinacy or indifference. Kindness will propitiate a 
lion. Devotion will inspire respect in the breast of a 
savage. Tact will supplement talent in swaying a 
State or leading the world. And above and in all, and 
stronger than all, is Love — "the impelling force of 
life. " 

There is no condition of life so bad but it has one 
good side. It is the province of tact to bring out the 
bright and the cheerful points in the darkest places of 
life. Thackeray says, " Some people cannot drive to 
happiness with four horses, and others can reach the 
goal on foot." Tact and a cheerful temper will furnish 
more real joy than all the riches of earth. To know 
how to use your opportunities ; when to pass by and 
when to notice ; when to interrupt and when to permit 
— these are the province of genuine tact. 

How often do we see the woman of small talents 
and humble life rise into a heroine in the house of 
sorrow by her tact and good management. Presence 
of mind and ready wit have served a good turn in 



TACT. 245 

many cases where the greatest wisdom and most 
ponderous learning would have sunk the ship. Every 
situation has its point of view ; we should place it in 
that favorable light. 

Years ago, into a wholesale grocery store in Bos- 
ton, walked a tall, muscular-looking man, evidently a 
fresh comer from some backwoods town in Maine 
or New Hampshire. Accosting the first person he 
met, who happened to be the merchant himself, he 
asked : 

"You don't want to hire a man in your store, do 
you?" 

" Well," said the merchant, " I don't know ; what 
can you do?" 

"Do?" said the man, "I rather guess I can turn 
my hand to almost anything — what do you want 
done?" 

" Well, if I was to hire a man, it would be one who 
could lift well; a strong, wiry fellow. One, for 
instance, who could shoulder a sack of coffee like 
that yonder, and carry it across the floor and never 
lay it down." 

"There, now Captain," said the countryman, 
" that's just me. I can lift anything I hitch to ; you 
can't suit me better. What will you give a man that 
will suit you?" 

"I'll tell you," said the merchant; "if you'll shoul- 
der that sack of coffee and carry it across the store 
twice, and never lay it down, I will hire you for a year 
at one hundred dollars a month." 

" Done," said the stranger, and by this time every 



246 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

clerk in the store had gathered around and waited to 
join in the laugh against the man, who, walking up to 
the sack, threw it across his shoulder with perfect ease, 
though extremely heavy, and walking with it twice 
across the floor, went quietly to a large hook which 
was fastened to the wall, and hanging it up, turned to 
the merchant and said: 

" There, now ; it may hang there till doomsday, I 
shall never take it down. What shall I go about now, 
mister? Just give me plenty to do and one hundred 
dollars a month, and it's all right." 

They broke into a laugh, and the merchant, dis- 
comfited, yet satisfied, kept his agreement, and to-day 
the green countryman is the senior partner in the 
firm, and is worth a million dollars. 

A little management may often evade resistance, 
which a vast force might vainly strive to overcome. 
Grant graciously what you cannot refuse safely, and 
conciliate those you cannot conquer. 



*l* 



Debt and Destruction. 

" Neither a borrower nor a lender be, 
For debt oft loses both itself and friend." 

Debtors can hardly help being liars, for they 
promise to pay when they know they cannot, and when 
they have made up a lot of false excuses, they promise 
again, so that they lie as fast as a horse can trot. 

Now, if owing leads to lying, who shall say that it 



DEBT AND DESTRUCTION. 247 

is not a most evil thing? Of course, there are excep- 
tions, and I do not want to bear hard upon an honest 
man who is brought down by sickness or heavy losses ; 
but take the rule as a rule, and you will find debt to be 
a great dismal swamp, a huge mudhole, a dirty ditch : 
happy is the man who gets out of it after once tumbling 
in, but happiest of all is he who has been by God's 
goodness kept out of the mire altogether. If you once 
ask the devil to dinner it will be hard to get him out 
of the house again : better to have nothing to do with 
him. Where a hen has laid one Ggg, she is very likely 
to lay another; when a man is once in debt, he is likely 
to get into it again; better keep clear of it from the 
first. He who gets in for a nickel will soon be in for 
an eagle, and when a man is over shoes, he is very 
liable to be over boots. Never owe a cent, and you 
will never owe a dollar. 

To be corhfortable and contented, be sure to spend 
less than you earn, and restrain your outgoes till they 
are less than your incomes. This seems to be a fact 
that very few persons have learned. When a man be- 
gins to go down hill he finds everything greased for 
the occasion, says a philosopher, who might have added 
that when he tries to climb up he finds everything 
greased for the occasion, too. 

Pay as you go. This is considered a very excellent 
motto in business, and if all business men do not act 
upon it, they do what is pretty much the same thing, 
they keep accounts, and watch them closely, in order 
to know how they stand, whether their expenses are 
greater than their receipts, and whether they are pre- 



248 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

pared to meet their bills when presented and whether 
they are not running too much risk in case of some 
unexpected calamity. Moreover, they are not looking 
to see how much they can spend, but how much they 
can save, and they are always anxious to decrease 
their unnecessary risks. 

But this principle may well be carried out into 
other lines of conduct where it is now but little prac- 
ticed. People draw, too heavily on their health, on 
their friends' kindness, on their own strength to resist 
temptation, and on dozens of other parts of their men- 
tal or moral capital, without even stopping to make a 
note of it. Take, for instance, the case of friendship. 
A man has some sharp words with a friend. He knows 
it is his duty to agree, even with an adversary, quickly, 
while he is yet in the way with him, and much more is 
it his duty to make up with a friend. But he does not 
try it. He lets it run on, and the next time he expects 
sortie neighborly kindness from his friend he does not 
get it. His account is overdrawn, but of course he 
never thinks of that. He is angry, and thinks he has 
somehow been cheated. This is because he does not 
keep strict accounts. He never stops, when he has 
done a thing, to consider what the result will be. He 
thinks it will all come out right somehow. As for 
drawing too heavily on our strength to resist tempta- 
tion, I need give no instance of that. We all know 
how that is done. 

We are apt to blame young men for being destroyed 
when we ought to blame the influences that destroy 
them. Society slaughters a great many young men by 



DEBT AND DESTRUCTION. 249 

the behest, " You must keep up appearances; whatever 
be your salary, you must dress as well as others, you 
must wine and brandy as many friends, you must 
smoke as costly cigars, you must give as expen- 
sive entertainments, and you must live in as fashiona- 
ble a boarding-house. If you haven't the money, bor- 
row. If you can't borrow, make a false entry, or sub- 
tract here and there a bill from a bundle of bank notes; 
you will only have to make the deception a little 
while; in a few months, or in a year or two, you can 
make all right. Nobody will be hurt by it, nobody 
will be the wiser. You yourself will not be damaged." 
By that awful process a hundred thousand men have 
been slaughtered for time and slaughtered for eternity. 

Our young men are coming up in this depraved 
state of commercial ethics, and I am solicitous about 
them. I want to warn them against being slaughtered 
on the sharp edges of debt. You want many things 
you have not, my young friends. You shall have 
them if you have patience and honesty and industry. 
Certain lines of conduct always lead out to certain 
successes. 

Suppose you borrow. There is nothing wrong 
about borrowing money. There is hardly a man in 
the house but has sometimes borrowed money. Vast 
estates have been built on a borrowed dollar. But 
there are two kinds of borrowed money ; money bor- 
rowed for the purpose of starting or keeping up legiti- 
mate enterprise and expense, and money borrowed 
to get that which you can do without. The first is 
right, the other is wrong. If you have money enough 



250 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

of your own to buy a coat, however plain, and then 
you borrow money for a dandy's outfit, you have 
taken the first revolution of the wheel down grade. 
Borrow for the necessities ; that may be well. Bor- 
row for the luxuries; that tips your prospects over in 
the wrong direction. 

The Bible distinctly says the borrower is servant 
of the lender. It is a bad state of things when 
you have to go down some other street to escape 
meeting some one whom you owe. If young men 
knew what is the despotism of being in debt, more of 
them would keep out of it. What did debt do for 
Lord Bacon, with a mind towering above the centu- 
ries? It induced him to take bribes 'and convict him- 
self as a criminal before all ages. What did debt do 
for Walter Scott? Broken-hearted at Abbotsford — 
kept him writing until his hand gave out in paralysis 
to keep the sheriff away from his pictures and stat- 
uaty. Better for him if he had minded the maxim 
which he had chiseled over the fireplace at Abbots- 
ford, "Waste not, want not." 

Bring me a young man and tell me what his phys- 
ical health is, and what his mental calibre, and what 
his habits, and I will tell you what will be his destiny 
for this world, and his destiny for the world to come, 
and I will not make five inaccurate prophecies out of 
the five hundred. All this makes me solicitous in 
regard to young men, and I want to make them ner- 
vous in regard to the contraction of unpayable debts. 



HONESTY THE BEST POLICY. 25 1 



I70NESJI1Y <5he Best Policy. 

We quote the following from a witty and sensible 
writer: " Does it, after all, pay to be honest?" a dis- 
appointed young man writes. No, my son, not if 
you're honest for pay, it doesn't. Not if you are hon- 
est merely because you think it will pay; not if you 
are honest only because you are afraid to be a rogue; 
indeed, my dear boy, it does not pay to be honest that 
way. If you can't be honest because you hate a lie 
and scorn a mean action, if you can't be honest from 
principle, be a rascal: that's what you are intended for 
and you'll probably succeed at it. But you cannot 
make anybody believe in honesty that is bought and 
sold like merchandise. 

A great many people think the simple paying of a 
debt constitutes the whole of honesty. An honest 
man always pays his debts, but he will also do a great 
many other things which are honest. Jesus says, ren- 
der not only unto men the things which belong to 
them, but also unto God the things which belong to 
him. Is there not something- meant here besides the 
mere paying of debts? Should not Christians strive 
to obey all of this Divine injunction ? Should they not 
render to God all the praise of their hearts, all the ser- 
vices of their lives ? If it is dishonest to withhold from 
men what is due them, is it not much more so to keep 
from God what rightly belongs to him? 

Put it out of the power of truth to give you an ill 



252 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

character ; and if anybody reports you not to be an 
honest man, let your practice give him the lie ; and to 
make all sure, you should resolve to live no longer 
than you can live honestly; for it is better to be 
nothing than a knave. 

There is no ascertaining the quality of a tree but 
by its fruits. When the wheels of a clock move 
within, the hands on the dial will move without. When 
the heart of a man is sound in conversion, then the 
life will be fair in profession. When the conduit is 
walled in, how shall we judge of the spring but by the 
waters which run through the pipes ! 

The futility of a dishonest course is well shown by 
the old fable of the woodman who lost his axe in the 
river, and thereupon was presented by Mercury with 
one of gold. Another man came to the spot and 
threw in his axe, calling upon the god to reward him 
in like manner, and upon Mercury presenting one of 
gold, laid claim to it as the one he had lost. But this 
was refused him, and he also lost the other one, left 
lying in the river. 

The fortune of the Rothschilds is traced to the 
honesty of Moses Rothschild, of Frankfort. During 
the French Revolution, a prince of Hesse-Cassel, flee- 
ing through Frankfort, left his treasures with a small 
Jew banker there, who refused to give him a receipt 
for them. Afterwards the French plundered the Jew. 
robbing him of all but the Prince's treasures, which 
were buried in his garden. These he dug up and 
used in trade, and when the times of peace returned, 
he restored the money and jewels to the prince, though 



HONESTY THE BEST POLICY. 253 

he had lost his own. The prince in gratitude recom- 
mended the honest banker to various sovereigns. His 
business prospered, and his house has exercised a 
greater influence in the affairs of Europe than any 
king. Strict honesty has been their principle. People 
found that they could be trusted, and unprecedented 
success is the result. 

A beautiful palace in Germany has a statue placed 
at one corner, which represents a poor little beggar 
boy. The owner of the palace was once a little Italian 
beggar at Naples. One day a German nobleman was 
driving along the dusty highway, where a crowd of 
these ragged little fellows had collected. They all 
started to run after him, but as he drove on, one 
after another dropped back until only this one boy 
remained, his hunger lending a desperate energy to his 
weary limbs. The count threw what he believed was 
a copper coin to the lad, but it was really a piece of 
gold. The boy war too honest to keep this, and man- 
aged to overtake his benefactor and return the coin. 
This act laid the foundation of his fortune. 

Bacon says dissimulation is but a faint kind of 
policy. What he says of the inexpediency of all 
insincere proceedings is very true. Nothing but the 
right can ever be the expedient, since that can never be 
true expediency which would sacrifice a greater good 
to a less. It will be found that all frauds, like the 
" wall daubed with untempered mortar," with which 
men think to buttress up an edifi.ce, tend to the decay 
of that which they are devised to support. This truth, 
however, will never be steadily acted on by those who 



254 WELL-SPRINGS- OF TRUTH. 

have no moral detestation of falsehood. It is not 
given to those who do not prize straightforwardness 
for its own sake, to perceive that it is the wisest course. 
The maxim that " Honesty is the best policy," is one 
which, perhaps, no one is ever guided by in practice 
An honest man is always before it, and a knave is gen- 
erally behind it. He does not find out till too late, 

What a tangled web we weave, 
When first we practice to deceive. 

No one, in fact, is capable of fully appreciating the 
ultimate expediency of a devoted adherence to truth, 
save the Divine Being, who is the truth ; because he 
alone comprehends the whole of the vast and imper- 
fectly revealed scheme of Providence, and alone can 
see the inmost recesses of the human heart, and alone 
can foresee and judge of the remotest consequences of 
human action's. 

fflOl^AIi (©OUTAGE. 

Give to the winds thy fears ! 

Hope, and be undismayed; 

God hears thy sighs, and counts thy fears, 

God shall lift up thy head. 

Whenever you see a wrong deed, and have the 
courage to say, "It is wrong,»and I for one will have 
nothing to do with it " ; whenever you come in contact 
with a low and unchristian standard, or a bad, un- 
worthy habit, and are man enough first to refuse to 
succumb to it, and then to do your best to overthrow 
it, you are a prophet; and, by acting thus, you, can 



MORAL COURAGE. 255 

help to improve the moral standard of the world. 
Your words and deeds will breathe like fresh wind 
through the perfumed and polluted atmosphere of 
society. Be brave, be just, be truthful, and honest to 
the heart's core, and so serve your brother man, your 
Father God and your Savior the Lord Christ. If the 
gospel be the example of Christ, this is the gospel, 
and nothing but the gospel. 

The courageous man is an example to the intrepid. 
His influence is magnetic. He creates an epidemic of 
nobleness. Men follow him even to the death. It is 
not the men that succeed that are always worthy of 
estimation. The men who fail for a time continue to 
exercise a potent influence on their race. The leader of 
the forlorn hope may fall in the breach, but his body 
furnishes the bridge over which the victors enter the 
citadel. 

It is the lives like the stars, which simply pour 
down on us the calm light of their bright and faithful 
being, up to which we look, and out of which we 
gather the deepest calm and courage. No man or 
woman of the humblest sort can really be strong, 
gentle, pure and good, without the world being better 
for it, without somebody being helped and comforted 
by the very existence of that goodness. 

Christians must by all means have courage in that 
they do, or undertake, for the advancement of our 
Lord's cause in the world. There is no reason why 
they should not. It is the Lord's cause. It is destined 
to prevail. He has determined that it shall not be 
turned back. Their due efforts in its behalf, too, will 



256 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

not fail, but will certainly bring forth fruit, however it 
may now appear. It is only the other things they may 
try to do, apart from this their Christian work, that can 
ever fail. Every one, then, may have a good heart in 
the Lord's service, and in all Christian well-doing, and 
should have it. Christian preachers, especially, have 
a right to have, and ought to have, this steady confi- 
dence and hope. They might be stronger some of 
them in their pulpits with more of it ; they might have 
more enjoyment in their work ; and a larger blessing 
might follow their labors. 

How much is lost to the world for want of a little 
courage ! We have the willingness to do, but we fail 
to do it. The state of the world is such, and so much 
depends on action, that everything seems to say loudly 
to every man, "Do something; do it, do it." The poor 
country parson, fighting against evil in his parish, 
against wrong-doing, injustice, and iniquity, has nobler 
ideas of duty than Alexander the Great ever had. 
Some men are mere apologies for workers, even when 
they pretend to be up and at it. 

More than ever do I feel- that our families must 
stand in a kind but determined opposition to the 
fashions of the world, breasting the waves like the 
Eddystone lighthouse. And I have found nothing yet 
that requires more courage and independence than to 
rise a little but decidedly above the par of the religious 
world around us. What incalculable mischief is done 
to the cause of God by the love of pre-eminence on the 
one hand, and the extreme sensitiveness to any fancied 
slight upon the other. Deeds are fruit, words are but 



MORAL COURAGE. 257 

leaves. There is no pleasure like that of exercising 
one's soul in bearing pain, and of finding one's heart 
glow with the hope that one is pleasing God. 

There must not only be a conquest over likings and 
dislikings; but what is harder to attain, .a triumph 
over adverse repute. The man whose first question, 
after a right course of action has presented itself, is, 
"What will people say?" is not the man to do any- 
thing at all. But if he asks, "Is it my duty?" he can 
then proceed in his moral panoply, and be ready to 
incur men's censure, and even to brave their ridicule. 
" Let us have faith in fine actions," says M. de la 
Cretelle, " and let us reserve doubt and incredulity for 
bad. It is even better to be deceived than to distrust." 

A poor boy was attending school one day with a 
large patch on the knees of one of his trowsers. One 
of his schoolmates made fun of him for this and 
called him " Old Patch." 

" Why don't you fight him ? " cried one of the.boys. 
" I'd give it to him if he called me so." 

" Oh," said the boy, " you don't suppose I'm 
ashamed of my patch, do you ? For my part, I'm 
thankful for a good mother to keep me out of rags. 
I'm proud of my patch for her sake!' 

This was noble. That boy had the courage that 
would make him succesful in the struggles of life. 
We must have courage in our struggles, if we hope to 
come out right. 

Courage is the quality which all men delight to 
honor. It is the energy which rises to all the emergen- 
cies of life. It is the perfect will, which no terrors can 
17 



258 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

shake. It will enable one to die, if need be, in the 
performance of duty. All the great work of the world 
has been accomplished by courage. Every blessing 
that we enjoy — personal security, individual liberty, 
and constitutional freedom — has been obtained through 
long apprenticeships of evil. It required four centuries 
of martyrdom to establish Christianity, and a century 
of civil wars to introduce the Reformation. 

Have the courage to discharge a debt while you 
have money in your pocket. Have the courage to do 
without that which you do not need, however much 
your eyes covet it. Have the courage to speak your 
mind when it is necessary you should do so. Have 
the courage to speak to a friend in a "seedy coat" 
though you are in company with a rich one and richly 
attired. Have the courage to wear your old clothes 
until you can pay for new ones. Have the courage to 
prefer comfort and prosperity to fashion in all things. 
Have the courage to acknowledge your ignorance, 
rather than seek credit for knowledge under false pre- 
tense. Have the courage to provide entertainment 
for your friends within your means — not beyond. 

At the bottom cTf a good deal of the bravery that 
appears in the world there lurks a miserable cow- 
ardice. Men will face powder and steel because they 
cannot face public opinion. An officer rode up to a 
battery of canon, who, observing another officer at his 
side, looking pale, turned in his saddle to accost him, 
saying, "You are afraid!" "True," replied his com- 
rade, "and were you as much afraid as I am you would 
turn tail!" There have been men like John the 



MORAL COURAGE. 259 

Baptist, who could speak the truth which had made 
their own spirits free, with the axe above their neck. 
There have been men, redeemed in their inmost being 
by Christ, on whom tyrants and mobs have done their 
worst, and who when, like Stephen, the stones crashed 
in upon their brain, or w T hen their flesh hissed and 
crackled in the flames, were calmly superior to it all. 
The power of evil had laid its shackles on the flesh, 
but the mind and the soul and the heart were free. 

Soon after the beginning of the bloody reign of 
Mary, in England, an officer was sent to bring Bishop 
Latimer to London, of which he had notice six hours 
before he arrived. Instead of fleeing, he prepared for 
his journey to London; and, when the officer arrived, 
he said to him, " My friend, you are welcome. I go as 
willingly to London, to give an account of my faith, as 
ever I went to any place in the world. And I doubt 
not, but as the Lord made me worthy formerly to 
preach the word before two excellent princes, he will 
now enable me to bear witness to the truth before the 
third, either to her eternal comfort or discomfort." As 
he rode on this occasion through Smithfield, he 
remarked " that Smithfield had groaned for him a long 
time." 

When the executioner went behind Jerome of 
Prague to set fire to the pile, " Come here," said the 
martyr, " and kindle it before mine eyes ; for if I 
dreaded such a sight, I should never have come to this 
place when I had a free opportunity to escape." The 
fire was kindled, and he then sang a hymn, which was 
soon finished by the encircling flames. Algerius, an 



260 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

Italian martyr, thus wrote from his prison a little be- 
fore his death : " Who would believe that in this dun- 
geon I should find a paradise so pleasant ; in a place 
of sorrow and death, tranquillity, and hope, and life ; 
where others weep, I rejoice." Wishart, when in the 
fire which removed him from the world, exclaimed, 
"The flame doth torment my body, but no whit abates 
my spirits." 

About 1 645 Dr. Harris, minister of Hanwell, Eng- * 
land, frequently had military officers quartered at his 
house. A party of them indulged much in swearing. 
The doctor noticed this, and on the following Sabbath 
preached from these words: "Above all things, my 
brethren, swear not." This so enraged the soldiers, 
who judged the sermon was intended for them, that 
they swore they would shoot him if he preached on the 
subject again. He was not to be intimidated, and on 
the following Sabbath he preached from the same 
text, and inveighed in still stronger terms against the 
vice of profanity. As he was preaching, a soldier 
leveled his carbine at him, but he went on to the con- 
clusion without the slightest hesitation. 

The age of martyrdom, like that of miracles, is 
passed. We are not shot or pinned to a stake, or 
broken alive on the wheel, as in bygone days; and yet 
we suffer by isolation, by misrepresentation, by ridicule, 
and by blame. Courage is as necessary as ever for 
those who would hold by the innate consciousness of 
the truth. It is even more difficult, in these days of 
indifferentism, to keep true to higher laws and purer 
instincts, than it was in the times of martyrdom. 



FIDELITY. 26l 

"Active persecution and fierce chastisements," says a 
well-known writer, " are tonics to the nerves ; but the 
mere weary conviction that no one cares, that no one 
notices, that there is no humanity that honors, and no 
Deity that pities, is more destructive of all higher 
effort than any conflict with tyranny or with barbarism." 



Fidelity. 

" Honor and shame from no condition rise : 
Act well your part ; there all the honor lies. 
Work makes the man; the want of it the fellow, 
And all the rest is leather and prunella." 

Faithfulness to the measure of our ability is 
rewarded by a larger opportunity. He that is faithful 
in little is promoted to a wider sphere. It is the way 
of nature. The man who is always whining over the 
limits of his lot will never do anything in the world. 
The woman whose pride is wounded because she has 
only one talent while another has two, will be sure to 
bury hers in the earth. 

They who shoot up with sudden, rocket-like im- 
petuosity usually burst ere long, and die out into 
darkness; but they who have started by doing their 
nearest duty faithfully have risen through that open 
door into something nobler, and through that again to 
something higher still, until they have reached a posi- 
tion of intrinsic power from which no human hands 
could push them. The power of a steady fidelity is 
resistless. 



2 62 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

When a Socrates is put to death, wisdom and truth 
seem to suffer ; and when an Aristides is exiled, jus- 
tice appears to be in disgrace. But virtue is its own 
reward, and depends not on the fluctuating opinions of 
mortals, nor on the breath of popular applause, which 
is often on the side of error, and entirely opposite to 
the real interests of its votaries. 

Are not difficulty and suffering necessary to evoke 
the highest forms of character, energy, and genius? 
Effort and endurance, striving and submitting, energy 
and patience, enter into every destiny. There is a 
virtue in passive endurance which is often greater 
than the glory of success. It bears, it suffers, it en- 
dures, and still it hopes. It meets difficulties with a , 
smile, and strives to stand erect beneath the heaviest 
burdens. Suffering, patiently and enduringly borne, 
is one of the noblest attributes of man. There is 
something so noble in the quality as to lift it into the 
highest regions of heroism. It was a saying of Milton, 
"Who best can suffer, best can do." 

Do the best you can where you are, and when that 
is done you will see an opening for something better. 
This is good advice for numberless unquiet individ- 
uals. The hand of the diligent maketh rich.. 

"Sir," said the Duke of Wellington to an officer of 
engineers, who urged the impossibility of executing 
the directions he had received, " I did not ask your 
opinion, I gave you my orders, and I expect them to 
be obeyed." Such should be the obedience of every 
follower of Jesus. The words which he has spoken 



FIDELITY. 263 

are our law, not our judgments or fancies. Even if 
death were in the way, it is 

" Not ours to reason why — 
Ours but to dare and die." 

Very beautiful is the legend preserved by some 
old author, of the monk, to whom there appeared while 
at prayer in his cell, a glorious vision of his Saviour. In 
silent and adoring rapture he gazed upon the glorious 
presence. While he gazed, the hour arrived at which it 
was his duty to feed the poor who* came to the convent 
gate for their bread. The bell rang calling the monk to 
his humble duty. How he longed to stay ! But linger- 
ing not to enjoy the vision, he went his way to the 
lowly work of dividing bread among the poor beggars 
at the gate. When he returned he found the blessed 
vision still waiting for him. As he looked again he 
heard these words ; " Hadst thou stayed, I must have 
fled"! 

My sister, a woman of your ability and culture 
might grace earth's highest salons, and your beauty 
properly arrayed would adorn a palace. But God has 
put you in a humble home, and given you a needle for 
your equipment. Do not, therefore, stitch a complaint 
and a story of former wealth into every seam. Show 
your ability by the excellence of your work. If we 
are not superior in little things, we would not be 
superior in the great things of which we dream our- 
selves capable. In nothing is true ability — not a mere 
sham pretense of talent — shown more clearly than in 
doing thoroughly whatever comes to hand, be it small 
or great. When we admire the depth and accuracy 



264 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

of Mary Somerville's mind, as shown in her writings, 
we are prepared to believe what is said of her excel- 
lence as a cook. Such a woman, if she cooked at all, 
would be sure to excel as a cook all her inferior sis- 
ters, showing her superiority there as clearly as in 
mathematics. There is no surer sign of mental shal- 
lowness than doing any work slightingly. 

My brother, you may have education and ability suf- 
ficient to govern a nation, but there is nothing within 
your reach save a plough-handle. Very well, your 
talent need not be wasted even there. Show your 
ability by making a better ploughman than the igno- 
rant fellow by your side, and do your work as unto 
God, and not unto men. Make your education tell in 
your ploughing. 

But while I would have you do cheerfully and with 
your might whatever lowly work lies at hand, without 
murmuring that it is beneath you or unworthy of your 
talents and education, I would also guard you against 
thinking it is right to do the lesser when the greater 
work awaits your hands. You must not hoe cabbages 
with Domitian when an empire needs you as a ruler. 

What a happy world this would be if men only 
learned that lesson, and the anxiety and effort now ex- 
pended in "getting on in the world" were expended 
in fighting the evils of the world and the sins of our 
own hearts. Strength wasted in vain beating against 
the bars of circumstances which surround us, would 
tell in conflict with the enemy of souls. Perhaps you 
think you could do more for Christ and humanity if 
your talents had a wider sphere. Precisely — Satan 



FIDELITY. 265 

never tempts more dangerously than when he puts on 
a zeal for the cause of Christ. Under that plea lurk 
often ambition, pride, vanity, a'nd a host of sins which 
God detests. Remember God knows what is best for 
the cause of Christ far better than you do, and he has 
that cause far nearer at heart than you have. 

Samuel Smiles relates the following instances of 
canine fidelity : 

"Sir Walter Scott, in his journal, relates the story 
of a dog that saved its master from being burned alive. 
' Lord R. Kerr,' he says, ' told us he had a letter from 
Lord Forbes (son of Earl Granard, Ireland), that he 
was asleep in his house at Castle Forbes, when awak- 
ened by a sense of suffocation, which deprived him of 
the power of stirring a limb, yet left him the conscious- 
ness that the house was on fire. At this moment, and 
while his apartment was in flames, his large dog 
jumped on the bed, seized his shirt, and dragged him 
to the staircase, where the fresh air restored his powers 
of resistance and of escape.' This is very different 
from most cases of preservation by the canine race, 
when the animal generally jumps into the water, in 
which element he has force and skill. That of fire is 
as hostile to him as to mankind. 

"And lastly, there are the dogs of Pompeii and 
Herculaneum. The cast of the former is taken from 
\the ash cavity in which he was discovered. He died of 
suffocation and agony. But, like the sentinel, he 
never left his post. The Herculaneum dog Delta has 
left behind him a wonderful record of valor. In the 
disinterment of the buried city, his skeleton was found 



266 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

stretched over that of a boy of about twelve years old, 
most probably clasping his charge to prevent his being 
suffocated or burned. The boy perished as well as 
the faithful Delta, but a collar remains to tell of the 
noble courage of the dog. It relates that he had three 
times saved the life of his master — from the sea, from 
robbers, aud from wolves." If there is such a spirit of 
fidelity to duty to be found in poor brutes, how much 
more ought human beings to cultivate this quality ? 

The great battle fields of the world are in the 
hearts of men. The great struggles are within. A 
soul once committed to God and His cause finds in its 
fierce fights a field of glory, where grand victories may 
be won and sweet peace be found. The soul, really 
grand, is only tested in its fidelity. As we know the 
true weight of the intellect by the rich resources and 
patient strength with which it redeems a failure, so do 
we prove the salvation of the soul by its courageous re- 
turn into light — its instinctive rebound after some 
error that has darkened its vision and soiled its 
plumes. 

Every wakeful moment should be usefully employed. 
God lends them to us. He will call us to a strict 
account for their usage. They have wings that waft 
their own record of our use of them on, high. When 
once passed, they will never return to us. But their 
misuse will come back to us with fearful condemna- 
tion by-and-by, or their right employment shall add 
stars to our crown of rejoicing forevermore. 

Never believe ill of a friend; if you hear anything 
that concerns you, go to him in kindness ; doubtless 



FIDELITY. 267 

the matter can be explained to your mutual satisfac- 
tion. It is an old adage, " Stories never lose by travel- 
ing," and evil-minded or thoughtless persons may do 
much harm by exaggeration and repetition. 

Never make a promise rashly; but if once made, 
let no pleasure, no feeling of indolence, tempt you for 
one moment to break it. Let no one ever be able to 
say, in speaking of the word which you had given, but 
not kept, " Something has gone wrong, indeed, and I 
will never trust him again ! " "He who betrays an- 
other's secret because he has quarreled with him, was 
never worthy of the name of friend ; a breach of kind- 
ness will not justify a breach of trust." 

It is a good thing to be stable-minded, for a 
double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. To be 
of one opinion at one time, and another soon after, 
and to be continually changing, is not wise. There 
are times when it is wisdom to change our opinions ; 
when we are convinced that we are wrong, or that 
there is a better way, it would be unwise to hold to them ; 
but those changeable-minded persoifs, who advocate a 
thing at one time and oppose it at another — those 
people whose mind changes so often that you never 
know where to find them, are not to be depended 
upon, and, therefore, do not amount to much. 

" A woman's memory saved me from much temp- 
tation," wrote one who had lived a wild life in a wild 
land. " Not one of my own people ever knew her ; 
she was dead before I left home. But there were 
some things that might otherwise have been too much 
for me, that I was quite safe from, just because I had 



2 68 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

loved her. I never felt that I had in any way lost her 
love, and I could not go with it in my heart to places 
where I could never have taken her. When I felt 
a little lonely because I could not join those who 
had been my comrades, I just braced up my heart 
with the thought, ' for her sake.' " 

Dr. Lamson says, " Men may commend me, if. I 
yield up one by one, the sterner features of revealed 
doctrine, but how will He whose doctrine it is regard 
my generosity?" Our path is to be upward from the 
start; there is no grade downward on the road that 
leads to God. He calls to us from above. It is a vain 
thought to flee from the work that God appoints us, 
for the sake of finding a greater blessing for our own 
souls, as if we could choose for ourselves where we 
shall find the fullness of the divine presence, instead 
of seeking it where alone it is to be found — in loving 
obedience. 

Keep your conduct abreast of your conscience, and 
very soon your conscience will be illuminated , by the 
radiance of God.* Whitefield and a pious companion 
were much annoyed one night at a public-house 
by a set of gamblers in the room adjoining where they 
slept. Their noisy clamor and horrid blasphemy so 
excited Whitefield's abhorrence and pious sympathy 
that he could not rest. 

" I will go to them and reprove their wickedness," 
he said. 

His companion remonstrated in vain. He "went. 
His words of reproof fell apparently harmless upon 



HEROES. 269 

them. Returning, he lay down to sleep. His com- 
panion asked him rather abruptly: 

" What did you gain by it ? " 

"A soft pillow," he said patiently, and soon fell 
asleep. 

Yes, a soft pillow is the reward of fidelity, the 
companion of a clear conscience. It is sufficient re- 
muneration for doing right in the absence of all other 
reward. 

— -•& ■ »!< ■ > - 



I?E^OES. 

" True meekness is the loftiest heroism." 

" No one is a hero to his valet." 

Madame de Sevigne. 

Heroism, as we understand it, involves courage in 
combating great obstacles, in undergoing great dan- 
ger, and in bearing great burdens, or a cause of 
adequate moment, a cause which involves interests that 
are not personal or selfish. 

This heroism is not seen alone or chiefly on the 
battle-field. With the advance of time, there is an in- 
definite multiplication of channels in which true hero- 
ism may flow. Humphrey Davy was a hero, when he 
perilled his life over and over in his experiments with 
gases. .The members of the medical profession have 
often made the most resplendent exhibitions of hero- 
ism, in their self-forgetful efforts to ascertain the causes 
of disease and to stay its ravages. The young physi- 
cian was a hero who, by himself alone, dissected the 



27O WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

corpse of a victim of the yellow fever, knowing that 
the penalty would be his life. Literature has had its 
heroes, who, inflamed with a generous love of knowl- 
edge and culture, have braved penury and hunger 
that they might enlarge their minds, and commune 
with the great souls of the past. 

But it is hardly needful to say that no history is so 
rich in the names of heroes as the history of Chris- 
tianity. The men to whom, under God, is due the 
progress of true religion, have been heroes ; they have 
been men who, against great odds and great diffi- 
culties, have struggled and suffered in behalf of the 
noblest of causes. 

True courage is cool and calm. The bravest of 
men have the least of a brutal, bullying insolence, and 
in the very time of danger, are found the most serene 
and free. 

The list of Christian Heroes includes the names of 
such men as Henry Martin, who left England and a 
tenderly beloved companion to bury himself amidst 
the heathenism of India, and later in the darkness of 
Persia, to die at the age of thirty-one, a martyr to his 
self-forgetful love of his fellow-men. William Wilber- 
force abandoned a life of ease and well-earned rest 
that he might become the emancipator of the negro 
race, and at last " went up to heaven, carrying a mill- 
ion broken fetters in his hands." 

Richard Baxter, battling with life-long sickness and 
feebleness, yet laboring with pen and voice so ar- 
duously that one is almost oppressed with the list of his 
writings, each.of them a masterpiece, the object of the 



HEROES. 271 

hatred and persecution of magistrate and prelate dur- 
ing the most degrading period of English history, the 
reign of James II, yet leaves behind him a great track 
of light which has not ceased to illumine the world. 

Then there was John Knox, a man as courageous 
as Nelson, as firm as Wellington, "never fearing the 
face of flesh," and equally insensible to blandishment, 
moved neither by the honeyed words of Mary nor by 
the spears of her squadrons, knowing only one thing, 
desiring only one thing, the answer to his prayer: 
" Give me Scotland, or I die," and writing his own 
character in letters of light on all the subsequent his- 
tory of the land. 

William Cary, a cobbler, in depths of poverty, with 
a .half- insane wife, with no brilliant genius, and yet who 
formed and founded the plan of Modern Christian 
Missions to the Heathen, and carried the work into 
execution, although opposed by the British Govern- 
ment and East India Company, and embarked for India 
on an undertaking that to human eyes was absolute 
madness. 

Robert Hall, combating all his life with the most 
torturing disease, suffering so intensely from calculi in 
the kidneys that he said life was a burden and torment, 
despised as a dissenter, suffering social ostracism, and 
yet forcing his way to recognition as the first of 
Christian orators. 

A wonderful instance of heroic action was that of 
Captain Strachan of the steamer Cyprian, wrecked off 
the Welsh coast. Just" as the captain was ready to 
jump from the wreck with his life-preserver on, he saw 



272 m WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

a little stowaway, who crawled from the hold of the 
vessel and begged to be saved. The captain immedi- 
ately took off his life-preserver and tied it upon the lad, 
and together they were washed into the sea. The boy 
reached the shore alive, but the captain was drowned. ' 

General Kershaw, of South Carolina, has recently 
published a touching narrative of the bravery and hu- 
manity of Sergeant Richard Kirkland, a soldier of his 
brigade, at the battle of Fredericksburg in 1862. The 
day after that sanguinary battle, the ground between 
the two opposing lines was covered with the wounded, 
dying and dead soldiers of the Union army, and any 
one who needlessly exposed himself but for a moment 
was sure to fall by a fatal bullet. 

All that day those wounded men rent the air with 
their groans and their agonizing cries of "Water! 
water ! " In the afternoon the general sat surveying 
the field, when Kirkland came up. With an expres- 
sion of indignant remonstrance pervading his person, 
his manner and the tones of his voice, he said, " Gen- 
eral, I can't stand this." "What is the matter, 
sergeant? " asked the general. He replied, "All night 
and all day I have heard these poor people crying for 
water, and I can stand it no longer. I come to ask 
permission to go and give them water." 

The general regarded him for a moment with feel- 
ings of profound admiration, and said, " Kirkland, 
don't you know that you would get a bullet through 
your head the moment you stepped over the wall?" 
"Yes, sir," he said, "I know that; but if you will let 
me, I am willing to try it." 



HEROES. 273 

After a pause the general said, " Kirkland, I ought 
not to allow you to run such a risk, but the sentiment 
which actuates you is so noble that I will not refuse 
your request, trusting that God may protect you. You 
may go." 

The sergeant's eyes lighted up with pleasure. He 
said "Thank you, sir," and ran rapidly down stairs. 
The general heard him pause for a moment, and then 
return, bounding two steps at a time. He thought the 
sergeant's heart had failed him. He was mistaken. 
The sergeant stopped at the door and said, " General, 
can I show a white handkerchief?" The general 
slowly shook his head, saying emphatically, " No, 
Kirkland, you can't do that." " All right sir," he said, 
" I'll take the chances," and ran down with a bright 
smile on his handsome countenance. 

With a profound anxiety he was watched as he 
stepped over the wall on his errand of mercy — Christ- 
like mercy. Unharmed he reached the nearest suf- 
ferer. He knelt beside him, tenderly raised the 
drooping head, rested it gently upon his own noble 
breast, and poured the precious, life-giving fluid down 
the fever-scorched throat. This done, he 'laid him 
tenderly down, placed his knapsack under his head, 
straightened out his broken limb, spread his overcoat 
over him, replaced his empty canteen with a full one, 
and turned to another sufferer. By this time his pur- 
pose was well understood on both sides, and all 
danger was over. From all parts of the field arose 
fresh cries of " Water, water; for God's sake, water!" 
More piteous still the mute appeal of some who could 

18 



274 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

only feebly lift a hand to say, " Here, too, is life and 
suffering." For an hour and a half did this minister- 
ing angel pursue his labor of mercy, nor cease to go 
and return until he relieved all the wounded on that 
part of the field. He returned to his post wholly un- 
hurt. Who shall say how sweet his rest that winter's 
night beneath the cold stars ? 

But there are heroes who never saw a battle-field, 
nor heard the roar of cannon. Says a well-known 
author, " I confess that increasing years bring with 
them an increasing respect for men who do not 
succeed in life, as those words are commonly used. 
Heaven is said to be a place for those who have not 
succeeded upon earth; and it is surely true celestial 
graces do not best thrive and bloom in the hot blaze of 
worldly prosperity. Ill success sometimes arises from a 
superabundance of qualities in themselves good — -from 
a conscience too sensitive, a taste too fastidious, a self- 
forgetfulness too romantic, a modesty too retiring. I 
will not go so far as to say, with a living poet, that ' the 
world knows nothing of its greatest men,' but there are 
forms of greatness, or at least excellence, which ' die 
and make no sign ' ; there are martyrs that miss the 
plan but not the stake; heroes without the laurel, and 
conquerors without the triumph. ,, 






KEEP COOL. 275 



I^EBP (g001i. 

" Take things cool," is perhaps as good a motto 
as can be adopted. It is never good to be excited ; 
no possible benefit can be derived from it, as it always 
is an excess going beyond due bounds. It simply 
means too much. The cool man sees things in the 
true light. Get him away from this, and he is at 
once out of his sphere. The great workers of the 
world are those who abide by the facts, and carry them 
out — not exaggerate or distort them. Nature is 
always right ; she never oversteps her bounds, and 
hence she is always true and successful. Let a man 
be beyond this, and he is apt to be flighty or unsuc- 
cessful. Trust to coolness, to the truth of things. Not 
that ardor should be dispensed with — that ardor which 
sees things but the more clearly ; but let it go no far- 
ther. Excitement has done immense harm in the 
world, and is doing it daily — for we are an excitable 
world. It is our intemperance, mentally; and intem- 
perance of the mind is as bad as that of the body, and 
often leads to wreck, as does the body. Insanity is 
one of its common fruits. Abuse is another — in fact, 
is the same. A judicious course is always the thing if 
we could but keep within temperate bounds. 

Don't be in a hurry. It's no sort of use. We 
never knew a man who was always in a hurry that 
wasn't always behindhand. They are proverbial all 
over the world for bringing nothing to pass. Hurry, 



276 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

skurry, bluster — what does it all amount to? Not a 
straw. If you want to accomplish anything as it should 
be done, you must go about it coolly, moderately, 
faithfully, heartily. Hurrying, fretting, fuming, splut- 
tering, will do no good — not in the least. Are great 
works of great men done in a hurry ? Not at all. 
They are the produce of time and patience — the 
result of slow, solid development. Nothing ought to 
be done in a hurry. It is contrary to nature, reason, 
right, justice and common sense. Your man of hurry 
is no sort of character at all. Always in confusion, 
loose at every point, unhinged and unjointed, blowing 
and puffing here and there, but all ending in smoke. 

It is not work that kills men, it is worry. Work 
is healthy ; you can hardly put more upon a man 
than . he can bear. Worry is rust upon the blade. 
It is not the revolution that destroys the machinery, 
but the friction. Fear secretes acids, but love and trust 
are sweet juices. Anxiety is the poison of life, the 
parent of many sins, and of more miseries. Why, 
then, allow it, when we know that all the future is 
guided by a Father's hand. The chief secret of com- 
fort lies in not suffering trifles to vex us, and in pru- 
dently cultivating our undergrowth of small pleasures, 
since very few great ones are let on long leases. 
Vainglorious men are never happy. They cannot en- 
joy the small pleasures of life. They are the scorn of 
wise men, and admiration of fools, the idols of para- 
sites, and the slaves of their own vaunts. 

Dr. Payson, when interrupted by calls in busy mo- 
ments, or when he would not have desired them, found 



KEEP COOL. 277 

relief in the thought, which he often expressed, " The 
man who wants me is the man I want." Be thou like 
the bird perched upon some frail thing, although he 
feels the branch bending beneath him, yet loudly sings 
knowing full well that he has wings. It has been well 
said that no man ever -sank under the burden of the 
day. It is when to-morrrow's burden is added to the 
burden of to-day that the weight is more than a man 
can bear. 

Success is always invigorating, but to truly great 
minds never intoxicating. Only light fabrics are 
puffed up by a breath. If you allow yourself to be 
elated by temporary or continued success, you lose the 
well-balanced mind necessary for an ultimate triumph. 
If you are a wise man you will treat the world as the 
moon treats it. Show it only one side of yourself, 
seldom show yourself too much at a time, and let what 
you show be calm, cool and polished. But look at 
every side of the world. Keep cool and you command 
everybody. 

During the height of the so-called "Jingo" excite- 
ment, when men, and more especially women, were 
almost unendurable on account of their political vehe- 
mence, Lord Beaconsfield was, apparently at least, 
perfectly calm. Seated at dinner by the side of an 
illustrious lady, he was asked in tones full of feminine 
petulance ; " What are you waiting for ? What are 
you waiting for?" — the implication being, amazement 
that he did not hurl England into a war against Rus- 
sia. "Waiting?" said he; "I am waiting for some 
roast mutton and potatoes." 



278 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

If you would enjoy your meals, be good natured. 
An angry man cannot tell whether he is eating boiled 
cabbage or stewed umbrellas. If you care for your 
good looks, and wish to keep them, don't fret. A 
habit of continual fretting over the little things will 
mar in time the handsomest face ever made. A joyful 
evening may follow a sorrowful morning. Some one 
has truly said, "Every to-morrow has two handles. 
We can take hold of it by the handle of anxiety or the 
handle of faith." 

Let men laugh when you sacrifice desire to duty, 
if they will. You have time and eternity to rejoice in. 
Adversity borrows its sharpest sting from impatience. 
Think twice before you let slip words that you know 
will hurt. It is easier to keep them from being 
spoken than to remove the sting and efface the wound 
afterwards. Many a bitter word would never have 
found existence, if the one speaking it had thought 
twice before doing so. With some men, however, 
there is no such thing as keeping cool. Goldsmith 
said of Dr. Johnson, " There is no arguing with 
Johnson ; for if his pistol misses fire he knocks you 
down with the butt end of it." 

Be systematic. It is one condition of success. If 
you get at loose ends you will soon ravel out. If the 
screws and bolts of your engine are loose, you will 
soon rattle it to pieces. And the faster you go the 
sooner it is done. But don't turn the screws too 
tight, you may break something. Genuine system is 
an easy-going thing. Like well-made, well-oiled 
machinery, it runs with little noise. If what you call 






KEEP COOL. 279 

system makes a noise, or heats the axles, it is some- 
thing else True system prevents and reduces 
friction ; the counterfeit develops it. Happy is he 
whose system makes things go easily instead of 
roughly. 

A gentleman living in the East Indies had a tamed 
tiger. One day as it crouched by his side it began 
licking the back of his hand, while he was absorbed in 
his book. A low growl from the beast caused him to 
turn and raise his hand. It was covered with blood. 
A fierce gleam from the eyes of the tiger warned him 
that his life was in danger. With great coolness he 
put down his hand again and began calling to his 
native servant, who soon came and shot the now ex- 
cited beast. " The smell of blood is too strong for the 
tamed tiger." 

But the same quality is sometimes displayed amid 
the fire of shot and shell. At the siege of Cadiz by 
the French in 181 2, men and women were killed in 
the streets, at the windows, and in the recesses of 
their, houses. When a shell was thrown by the 
enemy, a single toll of the great bell was the signal 
for the inhabitants to be on their guard. One day a 
solemn toll was heard in signal of a shell. That very 
shell fell furiously on the bell and shivered it to atoms. 
The monk whose duty it was to sound it, went very 
coolly and tolled the other bell. The good man had 
conquered the fear of death. 

In the American Iron Works at Pittsburg, an iron- 
roller, named Robert Moore, had a white-hot ring of 
iron thrown by accident over his head and down on 



280 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

his shoulders. With wonderful nerve, he took hold 
with a pair of tongs of a piece of iron protruding from 
one side of the fiery circle, and seized the other side of 
the ring with his naked hand. The ring was a pretty 
tight fit, there not being quiet an inch and a half to 
spare as it passed over his nose. The man had the 
fortitude to lift the hot iron slowly and carefully over his 
head, without touching any part of it. -His face was 
badly scorched, and his hand was burnt to the bone ; 
but he never flinched. When the iron band was cold, 
he put it back on his neck, and found it just two inches 
larger round than his head. 



©LINING ©0INIF3. 

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide 
In the strife of truth and falsehood for the good or evil side. 

There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune ; 
Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
Is bound in shallows and in miseries. 

No one who has read biography with carefulness 
has failed to see certain little things, especially in the 
lives of great men, which have turned them away from 
ignorance, or idleness, or error, to a life distinguished 
for its intelligence and earnestness. Sometimes the 
turning point is in early life. It is said of Voltaire 
that at the age of five years he committed to memory 
an infidel poem, and was never after that able to free 
himself from its pernicious influence. 



TURNING POINTS. 251 

William Wilberforce, when a child, was placed 
under the training of a pious aunt; and although 
much was done in his early manhood to erase the im- 
pressions received from his aunt, his whole life was 
moulded and colored by tha.t same training. Hume 
was quite young when he took the wrong side in a 
debate, and embraced and defended through life the 
position taken at that time. Scott, the commentator, 
in a despairing mood, read a hymn of Dr. Watts on 
the all-seeing God, and was turned from his sin and 
idleness to a life of usefulness. The rebuke of his 
teacher and the taunt of a schoolmate aroused Clarke, 
the distinguished divine, who, up to that time, was 
very slow in attaining knowledge. 

The turning point in Doddridge's life was when 
Clarke took him under his care. The first year he 
made great progress in study, and soon developed 
into a man of learning and influence. Aaron Burr 
sought spiritual advice in a revival at college, but his 
counsellor told him that the work was not genuine. 
His anxieties were dissipated, and from that time his 
downward career has been dated. Robert Moffat, the 
distinguished missionary, as he read a placard an- 
nouncing a missionary meeting, was led to devote his 
life to the benefit of the heathen. Thus it is that char- 
acter and years of usefulness often depend on one 
little event or circumstance. 

The sudden darkness occasioned by the extinguish- 
ing of a lamp in a lady's room was the means of her 
conversion recently in Switzerland. She had long 
lived only for the world, and the thought of her sins 



282 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

had never given her uneasiness. One night, while 
alone in her room, she saw the lamp suddenly go out. 
Although she was alone, she said aloud (thinking only 
of the accident which left her in the dark), "There is 
no oil in the lamp ! " The words thus spoken sounded 
in her ears with a new sense. She recalled the para- 
ble of the five foolish virgins who had no oil, and 
whose lamps had gone out at the coming of the Bride- 
groom; and from that moment, day and night, that 
Word of God remained in her soul. It recurred to her 
constantly: "No, I have no oil in my lamp! My God! 
what will become of me? I have not Thy grace in my 
heart!" She was filled with fear, began to pray, and 
continued in prayer, until God gave her peace through 
believing in Christ. 

Rev. Frederick Arnold thus happily illustrates the 
difference between the "Providence that shapes our 
ends" and what men call "luck" and "chance." 
"What we call the 'turning point' is simply an occa- 
sion which sums up and brings to result previous 
training. Accidental circumstances are nothing except 
to men who have been trained to take advantage of 
them. Erskine made himself famous when the chance 
came to him of making a great forensic display ; but 
unless he had trained himself for the chance, the 
chance would only have made him ridiculous." 

There is a story told of some gentleman, who, on a 
battlefield, happening to bow with much grace to some 
officer who addressed him, a cannon ball just went 
through his hair, and took off the head of one behind 



TURNING POINTS. 283 

him. The officer, when he saw the marvelous escape, 
justly observed that no man ever lost by politeness. 

There is a man in Berkshire, England, who has a park 
with a walled frontage of seven miles, and he tells of a 
beautiful little operation which made a nice little addi- 
tion to his fortune. He was in Australia when the 
first discoveries of gold were made. The miners 
brought in their nuggets and brought them to the 
local banks. The bankers were a little nervous about 
the business, uncertain about the quality of the gold, 
and waited to see its character established. This 
man had a taste for natural sciences and knew some- 
thing about metallurgy. He tried each test, solid and 
fluid, satisfied himself of the quality of the gold, and 
then, with all the money he had or could borrow, he 
bought as much gold as might be, and showed, as 
profit, a hundred thousand pounds in the course of a 
day or two. His "luck" was observation, and knowl- 
edge, and a happy tact in applying them. 

The late Joseph Hume went out to India, and while 
he was still a young man he accumulated a consider- 
able fortune. He applied himself to the work of 
mastering the native languages, and turned the 
knowledge to most profitable account. On one occa- 
sion, when all the gunpowder had failed the British 
army, he succeeded in scraping together a large 
amount of the necessary material, and manufactured 
it for the troops. When he returned to England he 
canvassed with so much ability and earnestness for a 
seat in the East India directory, that he might carry 
out his scheme of reform, that, though he failed to get 



284 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

the vote of a certain large proprietor of stock, he won 
his daughter's heart, and made a prosperous marriage. 
And marriage is, after all, the luckiest bit of luck, 
when it is all it should be. 

There is, then, in truth, no luck. There are turn- 
ing points in life, moments, critical moments, that are 
worth more than years ; nevertheless a great occasion 
is only worth to a man what his antecedents have 
enabled him to make of it, and our business in life is 
to prepare for these supreme moments, these hours 
when life depends on the decision of the instant. 
Whatever of truth is veiled under the popular idea of 
luck and chance is, rightly considered, an incentive to 
the busiest industry, not an excuse for folded hands 
and idle dreams. 

Dr. Peddie says, " Never till a man feels the fires of 
individuality will he write his name up among living 
forces." And Charnock tells us, "He that hath many 
things to trust to is in suspense which he should take 
hold of; but where there is but one left, with what 
greediness will he clasp hold of that ! God cuts down 
worldly props, that we may make Him our stay." 
What may seem to be an utter failure may be in reality 
the first movement to ultimate victory. God comes 
near in every soul crisis to shed the light of His face 
upon us. Be not ashamed to confess that you have 
been in the wrong. It is but owning what you need 
not be ashamed of, that you now have more sense than 
you before had to see your error, and more grace to 
forsake it. Worship can better wait than reconciliation. 
Apology and restitution are sweeter offerings to God 



TURNING POINTS. 285 

than a lamb, for they are the sacrifices of a broken 
and a contrite heart. Certain thoughts are prayers. 
There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of 
the body, the soul is on its knees. " Moments spent 
with God are pearls strung for eternity." . 

Nicholas Biddle, Esq., when president of the Bank 
of the United States, once dismissed a clerk because 
the latter refused to write for him on the Sabbath. 
The young man, with a mother dependent on his exer- 
tions, was .thus thrown out of employment by what some 
would call an over-nice scruple of conscience. But a 
few days after, Mr. Biddle being requested to nominate 
a cashier for another bank, recommended this very in- 
dividual, and mentioned this very incident as proof of 
his trustworthiness. 

" You can trust him," said he, " for he wouldn't work 
for me on Sunday." 

Says Dr. Cuyler, "The actual working period of a 
life of three-score years and ten is very short. He 
who has not learned the value of an hour is doomed 
to failure. On an hour often swings a destiny for 
eternity." 

There are occasions where victory is more really 
perilous than a timely defeat ; a temporary triumph may 
lead to ground which the victors cannot permanently 
hold to their own true and lasting advantage. 

Choice is the supreme prerogative of the moral 
creation as distinguished from the material, and a 
mighty prerogative it is. The hugest orb in space can- 
not choose to loiter an instant in its swift rush, or to 



286 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

swerve a hair's-breadth from its orbit, but the little 
babe that has just learned to say mamma can overturn 
the throne of God in his own little bosom. 



Business GQo^aiiItcy. 

Such suggestions as the following would secure a 
race of business men that would honor the land that 
furnishes them so noble a theater for successful enter- 
prise : Engage in no business inconsistent with the 
strictest morality, nor in which you cannot daily seek 
the blessing of the Most High. Follow your chosen 
vocation, and that alone, whatever temptations to specu- 
lation or rapid acquisition may present themselves. 
Adopt no " tricks of trade," however sanctioned by 
custom, that involve deception or untruthfulness. 
Never incur a debt beyond your resources. Always 
live within your income. Devote a fixed portion of 
your income, beforehand, to charitable uses, to be 
employed and accounted for as systematically as 
family expenditures. The man who will regulate his 
business by such simple rules as these may free him- 
self from the feverish excitements of adventurous 
traffickers, and secure himself, with God's blessing, an 
honest competency, if not a benevolent affluence, and 
a good name. 

We seldom look clear through a man's career. 
We seldom follow him in his course from beginning to 
end. We seldom commence at the point where he 



BUSINESS MORALITY. 287 

began to let down conscience, and trace his decline 
through its various stages till his character is under- 
mined. Why, two thirds of the men that break down 
are not caused by pressure. There is a pressure that 
will break almost any timber. Oak will bear so many 
tons, ash so many, and hickory so many ; but take a 
piece of timber that is eaten out by dry-rot, or by 
worms, and put pressure upon it, and the moment it 
is called to bear a weight of twenty-five pounds it 
snaps. And in many cases where men break down, 
the reason why they break down is that they are 
worm-eaten. There are thousands of men who are 
deceived in bargains, who would not be if they had 
the head that honesty and morality give. There are 
thousands of men who place their trust in things 
which are not to be relied upon, and who are contin- 
ually stumbling, who would do well enough if they 
were conscientious and upright. Some are weak- 
minded, some are short-sighted ; some go into busi- 
ness for which they are not adapted ; some undertake 
more than they have the capacity to do, and there are 
failures from these causes ; but I declare to you that, 
among the men who fail, the greatest number fail from 
moral delinquencies ; from ten thousand little flaws 
that take away the stamina, the robustness of char- 
acter, and the soundness of judgment which are indis- 
pensable to success. And it is very desirable that 
young men should know these things. 

The smiles of heaven are upon those who do unto 
others as they would have others do unto them. 

But it is weak human nature to " kick him because 



288 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

he is down," and more than that, to kick him down 
because he is climbing up faster and better than we. 
There is a universal disposition to fling disparaging 
remarks at the book-agent, or the colporteur, who res- 
olutely goes out to do good and make an honest living. 
This custom is really upon a par with the saloon- 
keeper and the wine-bibber, who make sport and cast 
reproach upon those ministers and temperance people 
who seek to alleviate the curse of drunkenness. 

Transact all business with eternity in your eye. 
Better fail a thousand times, and in everything else, 
than attempt to shape for yourself a life without God, 
without hope in Christ, and without an interest in 
heaven. 

It must be admitted that trade tries character 
perhaps more severely than any other pursuit in 
life. It puts to the severest tests honesty, self-denial, 
justice, and truthfulness ; and men of business who 
pass through such trials unstained are, perhaps, 
worthy of as great honor as soldiers who prove their 
courage amidst the fire and perils of battle. And, to 
the credit of the multitudes of men engaged in 
the various departments of trade, we think it must 
be admitted that, on the whole, they pass through 
their trials nobly. If we reflect but a moment on the 
vast amount of wealth daily intrusted even to subor- 
dinate persons, who themselves probably earn but a 
bare competency — the loose cash which is constantly 
passing through the hands of shopmen, agents, 
brokers, and clerks in banking-houses — and note how 
comparatively few are the breaches of trust which 



BUSINESS MORALITY. 289 

occur amidst all this temptation, it will probably be 
admitted that this steady daily honesty of conduct is 
most honorable to human nature, if it do not even 
tempt us to be proud of it. 

The same trust and confidence reposed by men of 
business in each other, as implied by the system of 
credit, which is mainly based upon the principle of 
honor, would be surprising if it were not so much a 
matter of ordinary practice in business transactions. 
Dr. Chalmers has well said that the implicit trust with 
which merchants are accustomed to confide in distant 
agents, separated from them perhaps by half the globe 
— often consigning vast wealth to persons, recom- 
mended only by their character, whom perhaps they 
have never seen — is probably the finest act of homage 
which men can render to one another. 

" In good times prepare for bad," is a sensible 
rule. Instead of rushing into all sorts of wild specula- 
tions and extravagant living, now is just the time for 
a level-headed man to keep his business on a solid 
foundation, and his expenses within reasonable limits. 
I remember hearing years ago of an old merchant who 
on his death-bed divided the results of long years of 
labor, some hundreds of pounds in all, amongst his 
sons. " It is little enough, my boys," were his last 
words, " but there isn't a dirty shilling in the whole of 
it.*' His ideal had not been to make money but to 
keep clean hands. 

A person wrote to the New York " Tribune," " I am 

a young man just commencing business, and have some 

young men in my employ. How can I manage to pre- 
19 



29O WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

vent insubordination on the one hand and to make an 
affirmative success as an employer on the other hand ? 
Are there any books that will help me ? What are 
some of the best books for a young business man?" 

The following pertinent suggestions were given in 
the answer: "The best single treatise is the New 
Testament ; next to this is the Book of Proverbs of 
Solomon. The best business man we have ever known 
memorized the entire Book of Proverbs at twenty-two, 
carrying the American Tract Society's ten-cent edition 
in his vest pocket, and committing a half-dozen verses 
daily ; and when he became an employer gave a copy 
of the book to every employe with a friendly inscrip- 
tion commending it as an admirable business guide." 

Speaking of the modern mania for speculation, and 
making money rapidly, even at the risk of sacrificing 
honor, Samuel Smiles says : " Young business men 
are often carried away by such examples. If they have 
not firmness and courage, they are apt to follow in their 
footsteps. The first speculation may be a gain. The 
gain may be followed by another, and they are carried 
off their feet by the lust for wealth. They become dis- 
honest and unscrupulous. Their bills are all over the 
discount market. To keep up their credit they spend 
more money upon pictures, and even upon charities. 
Formerly, greedy and unjust men seized the goods of 
others by violence. To-day they obtain them by fraud- 
ulent bankruptcies. Formerly, every attempt was 
open ; to-day, everything is secret, until at length the 
last event comes, and everything is exposed. The 
man fails ; the bills are worthless ; the pictures are 



SOCIAL MORALITY. 29 1 

sold ; and the recreant flies to avoid the curses of his 
creditors." 

It is possible that the scrupulously honest man may 
not grow rich so fast as the unscrupulous and dishon- 
est one; but the success will be of a truer kind, earned 
without fraud or injustice. And even though a man 
should, for a time, be unsuccessful, still he must be 
honest; better lose all and save character. For character 
is itself a fortune ; and if the high-principled man will 
but hold on his way courageously, success will surely 
come — nor will the highest reward of all be withheld 
from him. Wordsworth well describes the " Happy 
Warrior" as he 

Who comprehends his trust, and to the same 
Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim ; 
And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait 
For wealth, or honor, or for worldly state ; 
Whom they must follow, on whose head must fall 
Like showers of manna, if they come at all. 



Social CQo^aluhy. 

The floods of vice, which ruin so many young men 
and women, — aye, and old ones too, are not altogether 
the result of inherent evil. Social surroundings 
develop an evil spirit, wh^re to the superficial observer 
all seems pure and virtuous. 

The professing Christian father will indulge in a 
foul story or a lewd remark in the presence of his son ; 
the mother insinuates a base motive, or gives expres- 



292 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

sion to a tainted thought before her child; and the 
seed thus sown is diligently cultivated in younger 
company, where the parent little suspects. 

The seeds of vice are sown at home, or on the 
street, in the office, the store, or upon the farm; and 
are harrowed in by every-day repetition. They germi- 
nate with opportunity, at the social gathering, around 
the hearthstone, and among every-day occurrences. 
They grow into flaming passions which take posses- 
sion of the soul, and fill it with the torments of the 
damned. They ripen into lives of shame and de- 
bauchery. 

What sad wrecks are there all around us, whose 
early life seemed laid amidst scenes of the greatest 
purity and peace. But there was a worm gnawing at 
the root of their lives, of which the world knew not, 
and for which parents or friends were often responsi- 
ble, and which at last so weakened their powers of re- 
sistance, that they came toppling to the earth like 
some forest oak swept down by an avalanche. 

A people's morals are sustained by their religion — 
Christian morals by Christianity. And if our people 
lead such lives as will not allow them to become Chris- 
tians in fact, in heart, in personal experience, in spirit 
and general character, in deed and in truth, the vital 
and all-sustaining power of our Christian morality is 
weakened by just so far as such a life is led. Chris- 
tian morality is higher, more general, and more defi- 
nite in its claims than any other. It lies at the foun- 
dation of our refinement and of our sturdy strength as 
a people, and, as a necessary consequence, it antago- 



SOCIAL MORALITY. 293 

nizes depravity in heart and life as no other system 
does, and more than any other it needs a powerful 
support from some source, even the support which 
alone is found in the hearts, principles and affections 
of a people, a people regenerated, born again, changed, 
saved by the indwelling and mighty Spirit of God. 
In the light of this truth look again at any vice which 
makes the true Christian life impossible, and there 
read the results, first upon individual character, and 
ultimately upon national character and destiny. 

But let us furthermore learn the importance of 
preserving a stainless character, even amid the most 
debasing surroundings. This is hard to do — very 
hard. With the ebbing and flowing of the tide of 
iniquity all around us, there is a danger that the weak 
point of character will be reached some time, and a 
leak sprung by which the flood of evil may with vio- 
lence rush through. Sodom never could have sullied 
the fair character of Abraham, whose heart was stayed 
on God; but it came well nigh ruining his nephew, 
Lot. 

No greater social vice exists than that of gambling*. 
It infests our social life to a most alarming extent, 
until good Christian women as well as men are allured 
into the mad vortex, and often wreck their fortunes in 
hope of getting something for nothing. Lavater 
says, " It is possible that a wise and good man may be 
prevailed on to game ; but it is impossible that a pro- 
fessed gamester should be a wise and good man." 

It is said that the goddess of fortune, once sport- 
ing near the shady pool of Olympus, was met by the 



2Q4 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

gay and captivating god of war, who soon allured her 
to his arms. They were united; but the matrimony 
was not holy, and the result of the union was a mis- 
featured child, called Gaming. From the moment of 
her birth, this wayward thing could only be pleased by 
cards, dice or counters. The goddess Fortune ever 
had an eye on her promising daughter Gaming ; and 
endowed her with splendid residences, in the most con- 
spicuous streets, near the palaces of kings. They 
were magnificently designed and elegantly furnished. 
Lamps always burning at the portals were a sign and 
a perpetual invitation unto all to enter ; and, like 
the gates of the Inferno, they were ever open to daily 
and nightly visitants ; but, unlike the latter, they per- 
mitted exit to all who entered — some exulting with 
golden spoil, others with their hands in empty pockets. 

" Religion, morals, virtue, all give way, 
And conscience dies, the prostitute of play. 
Eternity ne'er steals one thought between, 
Till suicide completes the fatal scene." 

People never plot mischief when they are merry. 
Laughter is an enemy to malice, a foe to scandal, and 
a friend to every virtue. It promotes good temper, 
enlivens the heart and brightens the intellect. 

Oh ! the heinousness of many of our thoughts ! 
How few would be willing to have a glass placed on 
the forehead through which all the most inmost 
thoughts cquld be read. We fear to have them 
known to man. God knows them all. 

It is not so much literary culture that is wanted, as 
habits of reflection, thoughtfulness and right conduct. 
Wealth cannot purchase pleasures of the highest 



SELF-DENIAL. 295 

sort. It is the heart, taste and judgment which 
determine the happiness of man, and restore him to 
the highest form of being. Burns says: 

" It's no in titles nor in rank ; 
It's no in wealth like London Bank, 

To purchase peace and rest ; 
It's no in making muckle mair; 
It's no in books ; it's no in lear, 

To make us truly blest : 
If Happiness hae not her seat 

And center in the breast, 
We may be wise, or rich, or great, 

But never can be blest." 



Self-Denial. 

When a man finds, at last, that there is something 
beyond this life to live for, the moment that concep- 
tion gets into his mind, life is transfigured and glorified 
into the nobler spheres of action. It becomes always 
glorious and fresh. Some men will tell you that life 
is tasteless, wearisome and exhausting; in every case 
they are men who have tried to live in a narrow and 
selfish manner. Life is transfigured to every true, lov- 
ing, brave and diligent soul. Each man, faithful in his 
sphere, transfigures it, and makes grand the humblest 
position. We may say that the act of transfiguration 
takes place when a man realizes the worth of his own 
soul, and his work of self-denying devotion to the 
good of his fellow-man. 

Self-denial is a kind of holy association with God ; 
and, by making you his partner, interests you in all his 



296 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

happiness. The more a man denies himself, the more 
he shall obtain from God. Teach self-denial, and make 
its practice pleasurable, and you create for the world a 
destiny more sublime than ever issued from the brain 
of the wildest dreamer. There never did and never 
will exist anything permanently noble and excellent in 
a character which was a stranger to the exercise of 
resolute self-denial. 

The humblest mother of a poor family who is cum- 
bered with much serving, or watching over a hospital- 
ity which she is too poor to delegate to others, or toiling 
for love's sake in household work, needs no emancipa- 
tion in God's sight. For it is the glory of womanhood 
to consecrate the commonest, hardest things by a 
self-denying ministry. Better that life be a short self- 
sacrifice than a long self-seeking. The greatest vic- 
tories and the sweetest enjoyments are reached 
through suffering. 

He is good that does good to others. If he suffers 
for the good he does, he is better still; and if he suf- 
fers from them to whom he did good, he is arrived to 
that height of goodness that nothing but an increase 
of his sufferings can add to it ; if it proves his death, 
his virtue is at its summit, — it is heroism complete. 
Daniel Webster says : "What a man does for others, 
not what they do for him, gives him immortality." The 
ability to control the lower nature in favor of the 
higher nature is the true self-denial. 

No man was more devoted to duty than Charles 
Lamb. There are few who have not heard of the one 
awful event in his life. When only twenty-one, his 



SELF-DENIAL. 297 

sister Mary, in a fit of frenzy, stabbed her mother to 
the heart with a carving-knife. Her brother, from that 
moment, resolved to sacrifice his life to his "poor, dear, 
dearest sister," and voluntarily became her companion. 
He gave up all thoughts of love and marriage. Under 
the strong influence of duty, he renounced the only 
attachment he had ever formed. With an income of 
scarcely five hundred dollars a year, he trod the jour- 
ney of life alone, fortified by his attachment for his 
sister. Neither pleasure nor toil ever diverted him 
from his purpose. 

When released from the asylum, she devoted part 
of her time to the composition of the "Tales from 
Shakespeare," and other works. Hazlitt speaks of 
her as one of the most sensible women he ever knew, 
though she had through life recurring fits of insanity, 
and even when well was constantly on the brink of 
madness. When she felt a fit of insanity coming on, 
Charles would take her under his arm to the Hoxton 
Asylum. It was affecting to see the young brother 
and his elder sister walking together, and weeping to- 
gether on this painful errand. He carried the strait 
jacket in his hand, and delivered her up to the care of 
the asylum authorities. When she had recovered her 
reason she went home again to her brother, who joy- 
fully received her — treating her with the utmost ten- 
derness. "God loves her," he says; "may we two 
never love each other less." Their affection continued 
for forty years, without a cloud, except such as arose 
from the fluctuations of her health. Lamb did his duty 
nobly and manfully, and he reaped a fitting reward. 



298 WELL-SrRINGS OF TRUTH. 

There are many such noble examples of self-deny- 
ing devotion to duty all around us! See that devoted 
daughter, renouncing the opportunity for a brilliant 
life in the social circles, for which her talents have 
fitted her, that she may relieve her less favored broth- 
ers and sisters of the burden of caring for an aged 
father. And that son, who unhesitatingly leaves a 
lucrative position, in obedience to the whim of an 
invalid mother, to go to a distant place and among 
strangers, and again begin the battle for honor and a 
competence. These things are all done so quietly, 
that we do not half notice or comprehend what they 
cost, but the recording angel does not overlook them. 

There are gifts more precious than money; a kind 
word; a hasty hand-clasp, or a sympathizing tear; an 
hour of prudent counsel may do far more for persons 
in distress than any mere gifts of pence or shillings 
that may be bestowed. We need to be brought in 
direct contact with suffering humanity, face to face, 
heart to heart, and hand to hand; and we need this 
not only for their benefit, but for our own ; not only 
that the poor may be lifted up from their dejected 
state, but that we ourselves may be lifted up to 
the joy and blessedness of a better and more unselfish 
life. 

The happiness of the tender heart is increased by 
what it can take away from the wretchedness of others. 
The essence of true nobility is neglect of self. Let 
the thought of self pass in, and the beauty of a great 
action is gone, like the bloom of a soiled flower. Dr. 
Monro Gibson says: "Many a small man is never 



SELF-DENIAL. 299 

done talking about the sacrifices he makes, but he is a 
great man, indeed, who can sacrifice everything and 
say nothing." 

In a time of famine a rich man sent for the poorest 
children of the town, and said to them: 

"There is a basket full of bread: you may come 
every day and take a loaf until it pleases God to send 
better times." 

The children attacked the basket, and disputed as 
to which should have the largest loaf, and then went 
away without thanking their benefactor. 

Only Frances, a very poor but cleanly girl, mod- 
estly remained behind, and had the smallest loaf 
which was left in the basket. She gratefully returned 
thanks and went home quietly. One day the children 
behaved very badly indeed, and poor Frances received 
a loaf very much smaller than the rest; but when she 
took it home, and her mother cut it open, a number of 
pieces of silver fell on the floor. 

The poor woman was astonished and said: 

"Go and return this money immediately, it must 
have been put in the bread by mistake." 

Frances went directly with it to the gentleman, 
who said: 

"My dear child, it was no mistake. I had the 
money put into that loaf to reward you. Remain 
always as peaceable and contented. Those who are 
satisfied with a little always bring blessings upon 
themselves and family, and will pass happily through 
the world. Do not thank me, but thank God, who put 
into your heart the treasure of a contented and grate- 



300 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

fill spirit, and who has given me the will and oppor- 
tunity to be useful to those who are in need of assist- 



ance." 



** 



15 * Xt '"-— »- 



©AHUENGE AND FORBEARANCE. 

Patience is the endurance of any evil, out of the 
love of God, as the will of God. The offices of pa- 
tience are as varied as the ills of life. We have need 
of it with ourselves and with others ; with those above 
and below us, and with equals ; with those who love 
us, and those who love us not ; for the greatest things 
and the least ; against sudden trouble, and under daily 
burdens ; disappointments as to weather, or the 
breaking of the heart ; in weariness of body, in wear- 
ing of soul ; in our own failure, and others' failures to 
us. In all these things, from childhood's little troubles 
to the martyr's sufferings, patience is the grace of God, 
whereby we endure evil for love of Him, and keep 
still and motionless not to offend Him. 

Patience has its charms as well as its reputed vir- 
tue. The charm is in its cheerfulness ; the virtue in 
its quiet fortitude to wait and trust. One adds to the 
other's beauty just as a moonbeam resting upon a 
placid sea adds to the beauty of the peaceful waters. 

The horse of a pious man in Massachusetts hap- 
pening to stray into the road, a neighbor of the man 
who owned the horse put him in the pound. Meeting 
the owner soon after, he told him what he had done, 
and added, " If ever I catch him in the road hereafter, 



PATIENCE AND FORBEARANCE. 3OI 

I'll do just so again." "Neighbor," replied the other, 
" Not long since, I looked out of my window in the 
night, and saw your cattle in my mowing-ground ; and 
I drove them out, and shut them in your yard ; and 
I'll do it again!' Struck with the reply, the man lib- 
erated the horse from the pound, and paid the charges 
himself. % 

Trust a man — show that you are ready to place 
confidence in him as a man — exhibit by your conduct 
toward him that you believe, so to speak, in his honor, 
aud you will do far more to win the heart of that man, 
and to draw forth the better feelings of his nature, 
than by all the exhibitions of law and authority. You 
disarm a man's evil nature when you prove by your 
acts and demeanor that you have confidence in his 
better nature. Thus it is that evil can be overcome 
by good. 

Indeed, we need but to trust men more to bring 
out the good that is in them. Trust them with privi- 
leges, and by practice they will learn the right use of 
them. The only cure for the evils of newly acquired 
freedom is freedom. Accustom the prisoner who has 
come out of his cell to the light, and he will soon be 
able to bear the brightest rays of the sun. To human- 
ize men they must be familiarized with humanizing 
influences. To make men good citizens, they must be 
allowed to exercise the rights and functions of citi- 
zens. Before a man can swim, he must first have 
gone into the water; before a man can ride, he must 
first have mounted a horse; and before he can be an 



302 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

intelligent citizen, he must first have been admitted 
to the duties of citizenship. 

Never be discouraged because good things go on 
so slowly here ; and never fail daily to do that, good 
which lies next to your hand. Do not be in a hurry, 
but be diligent. Enter into the sublime patience of 
the Lord. Be charitable in view of it. God can 
afford to wait ; why cannot we, since we have him to 
fall back upon ? Let patience have her perfect work, 
and bring forth her celestial fruits. Trust to God to 
weave your little thread into a great web, though the 
patterns show it not yet. When God's people are 
able and willing thus to labor and wait, remember that 
one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and the 
thousand years shall show themselves as a perfect and 
finished day. John Calvin has said, "I have not so 
great a struggle with my vices, great and numerous 
as they are, as I have with my impatience." The 
Alexander is strong within us. To conquer obstacles 
and difficulties without, and even curb passions with- 
in, is easier than to "rule the spirit" and bridle the 
tongue. With what pains and patience men study the 
art of speaking Saxon and French and German, and 
even the classics, that they may give the most delicate 
light and shade to thought. But the divine art of 
silence — holding the tongue under neglect or insult, 
being calm under every pressure of adversity — this 
surely is greater. Patience measures the character ; 
it perfects it. " But let patience have her perfect 
work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting 
nothing." Yet what do we see in the large measure 



PATIENCE AND FORBEARANCE. 303 

of cases ? Men living as if passion were strength. 
They groan and tug away as if there were no God at 
the helm. They hurry and bustle, rushing hither 
and thither, as if fire in the glow could make everything 
peaceful and fruitful. But who has found fussing, 
fuming and fretting, elements of strength ? What 
character have they profited? What plans have they 
perfected ? Impatience never made anything better 
in this world. 

As the sweetest things put into sour vessels sours 
them, or put into a bitter vessel embitters them, 
so murmuring puts gall and wormwood into every 
cup of mercy that God gives into our hands. The 
murmurer writes Marah upon all his mercies, and 
reads and tastes bitterness in them all. As to the 
hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet, so to the 
murmuring soul every sweet thing is bitter. 

Try to be patient. We so often spoil the good 
work of our hands by a spirit of impatience that can- 
not brook delay, and like an impatient child we dig 
round the very roots we have planted so carefully, and 
thus hinder natural growth. Give plenty of time for 
fruition. A good husbandman is seldom in haste. He 
sows and he tends — doing his part carefully, and then 
he waits. Depend upon it, in the midst of all the 
science about the world and its ways, and all the 
ignorance of God and his greatness, the man or 
woman who can say, "Thy will be done," with the 
true heart of giving up, is nearer the secret of things 
than the geologist and theologian. 

The greatest example the world has ever had of 



304 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

patience and forbearance, is our Lord and Savior, who 
constantly entreats and commands his followers to 
humility and forgiveness. " Forgive and ye shall be 
forgiven" is the promise at the beginning, and "ye 
ought also to wash one another's feet" is the com- 
mand at the end. One of the most lovely and beloved 
of men once said in public, " I feel so humble at times 
that I could let people wipe their feet upon me, rather 
than do them any injury or make them unhappy." ^ In 
the midst of great cause for resentment or revenge, let 
us remember how much we have done that has caused 
others to mourn or to worry or even to rage, that we 
had no just cause for doing. Then let us overlook 
the injury, and put away our bad feelings and pass by 
the unpleasant matter in the pleasant manner that 
well becomes a citizen of a christian and civilized land. 

He is the only rich man in the world who has 
learned to be content with what he has. If it were 
only for mere human reasons, it would turn to a better 
account to be patient ; nothing defeats the malice of 
an enemy like a spirit of forbearance ; the return of 
rage for rage cannot be so effectually provoking. 
True gentleness, like an impenetrable armour, repels 
the most pointed shafts of malice ; they cannot pierce 
through this invulnerable shield, but either fall hurtless 
to the ground, or return to wound the hand that shot 
them. 

Resentment is a very expensive vice. How dearly 
has it cost its votaries, even from the sin of Cain, the 
first offender in this kind ! " It is cheaper," says a pious 
writer, " to forgive and save the charges." Lost patience 




I W E R E L L 



FOR WEI]: :■:■ RIN08 'F TMJTH 



PATIENCE AND FORBEARANCE. 305 

is never found again. You may be patient next time ; 
but the spoken word cannot be called back — not with 
prayers and tears. 

A meek spirit will not look out of itself for happi- 
ness, because it finds a constant banquet at home, yet, 
by a sort of divine alchemy, it will convert all external 
events to its own profit, and be able to deduce some 
good, even from the most unpromising. It will ex- 
tract comfort and satisfaction from the most barren 
circumstances. " It will suck honey out of the rock, 
and oil out of the flinty rock." The gentleness that 
makes one great, comes from' subdued strength. This 
lovely fruit of the spirit proves an element of power. 
The " soft answer " often costs the answerer dearly. 
Sweetness of spirit is the outgrowth of self-control. 
Serenity of soul, whatever be the constitutional 
characteristics, comes most frequently from long self- 
discipline and prayerful struggle. 

Honors and dignities are transient, beauty and 
riches frail and fugacious to a proverb ; would not the 
truly wise, therefore, wish to have some one possession, 
which they might call their own in the severest 
exigencies. But this wish can only be accomplished 
by acquiring and maintaining that calm and absolute 
self-possession, which, as the world had no hand in 
giving, so it cannot by the most malicious exertion of 
its power, take away. 

You all remember the beautiful story of Cinderella, 
whose patience and forbearance, under the indignities 
heaped upon her by cruel sisters, were at last rewarded 

by the hand of the beautiful prince. So may we, 

20 



306 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

under like circumstances, bear up until the witch 
of opportunity shall open the way for our entrance 
upon a life of honor and success. 



+S* 



Duties of Liipb. 

No man has a right to say he can do nothing for 
the benefit of mankind, who are less benefited by 
ambitious projects than, by the sober fulfillment of 
each man's proper duties. By doing the proper duty 
in the proper place, a man may make the world his 
debtor. The results of " patient continuance in well- 
doing" are never to be measured by the weakness 
of the instrument, but by the omnipotence of him who 
blesseth the sincere efforts of obedient faith alike in 
the prince and in the cottager. 

No man's spirits were ever hurt by doing his duty : 
on the contrary, one good action, one temptation re- 
sisted and overcome, one sacrifice of desire or interest, 
purely for conscience sake, will prove a cordial for 
weak and low spirits, far beyond what either indul- 
gence, or diversion, or company can do for them. 

There is no evil that we cannot face or fly from,, 
but the consciousness of duty disregarded. A sense 
of duty pursues us ever. It is omnipresent, like the 
deity. If we take to ourselves the wings of the morn- 
ing, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, duty 
performed, or duty violated is still with us, for our 
happiness or our misery. If we say, the darkness 



DUTIES OF LIFE. 307 

shall cover us — in the darkness, as in the light, our 
obligations are yet with us. We cannot escape their 
power, nor fly from their presence. They are with us 
in this life, will be with us at its close ; and in that 
scene of inconceivable solemnity which yet lies further 
onward, we shall still find ourselves surrounded by the 
consciousness of duty, to pain us whenever it has been 
violated, and to console us so far as God may have 
given us grace to perform it. 

There are few things more beautiful than the calm 
and resolute progress of an earnest spirit. The tri- 
umphs of genius may be more dazzling ; the chances 
of good fortune may be more exciting ; but neither 
are at all so interesting or so worthy as the achieve- 
ments of a steady, faithful and fervent energy. The 
labor of the faithful is never in vain. The fruits will 
be found gathered into his hand, while the hasty 
garlands of genius are fading away, and the prizes of 
the merely fortunate are turned into vanity. 

The best kind of duty is done in secret, and with- 
out the sight of men. There it does its work devotedly 
and nobly. It does not follow the routine of worldly- 
wise morality. It does not advertise itself. It adopts 
a larger creed and a loftier code ; which to be subject 
to and obey is to consider every human life and every 
human action in the light of an eternal obligation to 
the race. . Our evil or our careless actions incur debts 
every day, that humanity, sooner or later, must dis- 
charge. 

Duty — pure duty — without any thought of per- 
sonal reward or personal happiness — is the strongest, 



308 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

sweetest, most sacred force that domestic life pos- 
sesses. And it brings with it its own consolations ; 
not perhaps the consolation it craves — it is strange 
how seldom Heaven gives us poor mortals exactly 
what we desire — but something else in substitution. 
How many a sorrowful woman heals her bruised 
heart beside her baby's cradle ! How many a disap- 
pointed, lonely man — to whom his wife is no companion 
and no helpmeet — takes comfort in his baby daughter, 
and looks forward hopefully to the time when she will 
be a grown woman ; his friend and solace, the sharer 
of his tastes and humorer of his innocent hobbies — 
all, in short, that her mother might have been, but is 
not! Yet he will not love the mother the less, but 
rather the more, for the child's sake. 

Neglect of private duties is the great reason why 
the hearts of many are so dead and dull, so formal 
and carnal, so barren and unfruitful under public 
ordinances. Oh that Christians would lay this seri- 
ously to heart ! Certainly that man's heart is best in 
public duties who is most frequently in private ex- 
ercises. 

Man does not live for himself alone. He lives for 
the good of others as well as of himself. Every one 
has his duties to perform — the richest as well as the 
poorest. To some life is pleasure, to others suffering. 
But the best do not live for self-enjoyment,, or even 
for fame. Their strongest motive power is hopeful, 
useful work in every good cause. 

The sphere of duty is infinite. It exists in every 
station of life. We have it not in our choice to be 



DUTIES OF LIFE. 309 

rich or poor, to be happy or unhappy; but it becomes 
us to do the duty that everywhere surrounds us. 
Obedience to duty, at all costs and risks, is the very 
essence of the highest civilized life. Great deeds must 
be worked for, hoped for, died for, now as in the past. 

Do not go through life searching for the hard and 
unpleasant things; it is enough if you are ready for 
them when they come. Live and act to-day. He 
who spends one half of his time in enjoying his to- 
morrows will spend the other half in regretting his 
yesterdays. He who is false to the present duty 
breaks a thread in the loom, and will see the effect 
when the weaving of a life-time is unraveled. Duties 
first, pleasures afterward ; let this be your life-rule. 

The widest field of duty lies outside the line of 
literature and books. Men are social beings more 
than intellectual creatures. The best part of human 
cultivation is derived from social contact ; hence cour- 
tesy, self-respect, mutual toleration, and self-sacrifice 
for the good of others. Experience of men is wider 
than literature. Life is a book which lasts one's life- 
time, but it requires wisdom to understand its difficult 
pages. 

Seek not to please the world, but your own con- 
science. The man who has a feeling within him that 
he has done his duty upon every occasion is far happier 
than he who hangs upon the smiles of the great or 
the still more fickle favors of the multitude. 

Life is a short day ; but it is a working day. Activity 
may lead to evil, but inactivity cannot lead to good. 
Luck is ever waiting for something to turn up. Labor, 



3IO WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

with keen eyes and strong will, will turn up something. 
Luck lies in bed, and wishes the postman would bring 
him the news of a legacy. Labor turns out at six 
o'clock, and, with busy pen or ringing hammer, lays the 
foundation of a competence. Luck whines. Labor 
whistles. Luck relies on chance. Labor on character. 
Labor is the duty man owes to society, rest is the 
duty he owes to his person, recreation is the duty he 
owes to his mind. 



Sowing. 

Every one is sowing, both by word and deed ; 
All mankind are growing, either wheat or weed ; 
Thoughtless ones are throwing any sort of seed. 

As the beauty of summer, the fruitfulness of 
autumn and the support of winter depend upon 
spring ; so the happiness, wisdom and piety of middle 
life and old age depend upon youth. Youth is the 
seed-time of life. If the farmer does not plow his 
land, and commit the precious seed to the ground in 
spring, it will be too late afterwards. So if we, while 
young, neglect to cultivate our hearts and minds, by 
not sowing the seeds of knowledge and virtue, our 
future lives will be ignorant, vicious and wretched. 
"The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; he, 
therefore, shall beg in harvest and have nothing." 

The soil of the human heart is naturally barren of 
everything good, though prolific of evil. If corn, 
flowers, or trees be not planted and carefully culti- 
vated, nettles and brambles will spring up ; and the 



SOWING. 3 t I 

mind, if not cultivated, and stored with useful knowl- 
edge, will become a barren desert or a thorny wilder- 
ness. 

As the spring is the most important part of the 
year, so is youth the most important period of life. 
Surely, God has a claim to our first and principal at- 
tention, and religion demands the morning of our days, 
and the first season, the spring of our lives; before we 
are encumbered by cares, distressed by afflictions, or 
engaged in business, it becomes us to resign our souls 
to God. 

Perhaps you may live for many years ; then you will 
be happy in possessing knowledge and piety, and be 
enabled to do good to others ; but if, just as youth is 
beginning to show its buds and blossoms, the flower 
should be snapped from its stalk by the rude hand of 
death, O ! how important that it should be trans- 
planted from earth, to flourish forever at the foot of the 
tree of life, and beside the waters of the river of life 
in heaven. 

There is not a thought that is not striking a blow; 
there is not an impulse that is not doing mason work ; 
there is not a passion thrust this way or that that is not 
a working man's thrust. The imagination in all 
directions is building. You think you are throwing 
out the net for game ; you think that you are laying 
plans for your accomplishment: but back of all the 
conscious work that is going on in you, back of your 
visible attainments, there is another work going on. 
There are as many master-workmen in you as there 
are separate faculties ; and there are as many blows 



312 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

being struck as there are separate acts of emotion or 
of volition. And this work is going on perpetually. 
Every single day these myriad forces are building, 
building, building. Here is a great structure going 
up, point by point, story by story, although you are 
not conscious of it. It is a building of character. It 
is a building that must stand, and the word of inspira- 
tion warns you to take heed how you build it, to see 
that you have a foundation that shall endure : to make 
sure that you are building on it, not for the hour in 
which you live, but for that hour of revelation, that 
hour of testing, when that which hath been done shall 
be brought out, and you shall be brought out, and 
shall be seen just as you are. 

It is a good and safe rule to sojourn in every place 
as if you meant to spend your life there, never omit- 
ting an opportunity of doing a kindness, or speaking 
a true word, or making a friend. Seeds thus sown by 
the wayside often bring forth an abundant harvest. 
You might so sojourn among strangers that they 
should be better and happier, through time and eter- 
nity, for your works and your example. 

The past is ever present with us. "Every sin," 
says Jeremy Taylor, "smiles in the first address, and car- 
ries light in the face and honey on the lip." When life 
matures, and the evil-doer ceases not from his ways, 
he can only look forward to old age with fear and 
despair. But good principles, on the other hand, form 
a suit of armor which no weapon can penetrate. 
"True religion," says Cecil, "is the life, health and 
education of the soul ; and whoever truly possesses it 






SOWING. 313 

is strengthened with peculiar encouragement for every 
good word and work." 

What we sow in youth we reap in age. The seed 
of the thistle always produces the thistle. The possi- 
bilities that wait upon you who are yet in the spring- 
time of existence, who are yet holding in your own 
two hands the precious gift of time, cannot be esti- 
mated ! Do not forget that a useless life is an early 
death. If you expect to fail, you will not be disap- 
pointed. If you expect to fail, get out of the way at 
once. It will save time, and perhaps " feelings." There 
are few sublimer words than Carey's, when he was 
pleading for foreign missions before a prejudiced au- 
dience in Northampton, England. He had two points 
in his sermon, thus : " First : Attempt great things 
for God. Second : Expect great things from God." 
God does not desire that we should pitch our tents in 
the valley of repentance and humiliation. He is satis- 
fied if we only pass through on our way to the happy 
heights of peace beyond. 

The Christian sower sows himself, his character, his 
spirit, his power of influence. He is himself a seed 
quick with divine life ; planted anywhere, God can make 
that seed grow into blessing. Spare sowing makes 
spare reaping, bountiful sowing brings bountiful har- 
vests; so let every man give not grudgingly but cheer- 
fully. The wise man. said, " The liberal soul shall be 
made fat; and he that watereth shall be watered also 
himself." We cannot get more out of human life than 
we put into it. 

We are hanging up pictures every day about the 



3 H WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH; 

chamber walls of our hearts that we shall have to look 
at when we sit in the shadows. The law of harvest is 
to reap more than you sow. Sow an act and you reap 
a habit ; sow a habit and you reap a character ; sow a 
character and you reap a destiny. 

Often we become discouraged and abandon a work 
when on the eve of success. We must sow before we 
reap, "but in due season we shall reap if we faint not." 
Think of Judson waiting five years for his first convert 
in Burmah ; or of Robert Morrison's waiting seven 
years for his first convert in China; or Adams' ten 
years at Port Natal ; or the London Mission Society's 
ten in Madagascar and thirty in the Madras Presidency 
without any, and fifteen in Tahiti for its first convert; 
or the Baptists twenty-one years for twenty converts 
among the Telugus, as compared with the gains of the 
last ten years, counted by tens of thousands, 

A pious author, writing about the results of classi- 
cal study, and imbibing the doctrines of ancient 
heathen philosophers, says: "The necessity of doing 
this, perhaps somewhat weakens the serious impres- 
sions of young men, at least till the understanding is 
formed, and confuses their ideas of piety, by mixing 
them with so much heterogeneous matter. They only 
casually read, or hear read, the Scriptures of truth, 
while they are obliged to learn by heart, construe 
and repeat the poetical fables of the less than human 
gods of the ancients. And, as the excellent author of 
'The Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion' ob- 
serves, ' Nothing has so much contributed to corrupt 
the true spirit of the Christian institution, as that 






REAPING. 315 

partiality which we contract, in our earliest educa- 
tion, for the manners of pagan antiquity.'" 

Be careful about the initial paragraphs. Some- 
body has said that "the first hour is the rudder that 
steers the course of the whole day." The mediaeval 
monks, in preparing their manuscripts, took special 
pains in illuminating the opening letter of the chapter, 
reasoning rightly that they would be likely to* conform 
the rest of their work to that. If the first words and 
first acts of the new year are such as conscience 
approves, good square strokes and not blots, it helps 
wonderfully to make all the rest of the record comely. 
There is an old proverb that "a bad beginning makes 
a good ending ; " but if that ever proves true in life it 
is owing to the uncovenanted grace of God, a power 
in which men are nowhere encouraged to trust. If 
anybody is in earnest to build a symmetrical year, in 
whose strength and beauty he can find satisfation, let 
him take special pains with the lower courses of the 
foundation. The first days are the corner-stones of 
all the days which are to follow. 



Reaping. 

If you forget God when you are young, God may 
forget you when you are old. Sin yields its pleasures 
first; but the pain is sure to follow. The pleasures of 
sin are but for a season. As they who, for every 
slight infirmity, take physic to repair their health, do 



31 6 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

rather impair it ; so they who, for every trifle, are eager 
to vindicate their character, do rather weaken it. He 
who would pass the latter part of his life with honor 
and decency, must, when he is young, consider that he 
shall one day be old; and remember, when he is old, 
that he has once been young. 

A master comes to his garden. He turns over 
leaves of pear and plum trees, and he looks along the 
branches of the peach-trees. "Trees look very heal- 
thy, don't they, sir?" says the gardener, in a satisfied 
way. Then they pass into the orchard. "Nice trees 
these, sir," observes the gardener, " very choice sorts, 
golden pippin and russet." Then they turn to the 
hot-houses : " Vines and pines look very promising," 
says the gardener, smiling complacently. At last the 
master speaks out, half angrily, " What in the world is 
the use of healthy trees, and of choice sorts, and of 
promising plants ? I don't want green leaves and fine 
young wood only — I want fruit. And if you can't get 
it, I must find somebody that can." 

The Lord of the vineyard comes to us. He stands 
before us and looks underneath the leaves of our pro- 
fession, searching for fruit. Good desires, good feel- 
ings, good endeavors, all our praying, all our believing 
— everything else counts for nothing unless there be 
some fruit. This is what our Master requires and 
seeks. 

In an active life is sown the seed of wisdom; but 
he who reflects not never reaps ; has no harvest from 
it, but carries the burden of age, without the wages of 
experience ; nor knows himself old, but from his infirmi- 



REAPING. 317 

ties, the parish register, and the contempt of mankind. 
And what has age, if it has not esteem ? It has nothing. 

The martyr may perish at the stake, but the truth 
for which he dies may gather new luster from his sac- 
rifice. The patriot may lay his head upon the block, 
and hasten the triumph of the cause for which he suf- 
fers. The memory of a great life does not perish with 
the life itself, but lives in other minds. The ardent and 
enthusiastic may seem to throw their lives away ; but 
the enduring men continue the fight, and enter in and 
take possession of the ground on which their predeces- 
sors sleep. Thus the triumph of a just cause may 
come late, but when it does come it is due to the men 
who have failed as well as to the men who have event- 
ually succeeded. 

The man whose conscience is void of offense, can 
stand unmoved amid the storms of sorrow, and can 
face the slings and arrows of adversity, strong in the 
confidence that God is with him. But when he has 
violated conscience and has departed from God, his 
sources of strength are dried up ; like Samson 
despoiled of his locks, he is weak as other men are, 
and goes down in the general wreck, feeble when he 
might have been strong, defeated when he might have 
been a victor, dishonored when he might have been 
crowned with glory, lost when he might have been 
saved. 

Many young persons seem to think it of not much 
consequence if they do not improve their time well in 
youth, vainly expecting that they can make it up by 
diligence when they are older. They also think it 



31 8 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

is disgraceful for men and women to be idle, but that 
there can be no harm for persons who are young to 
spend their time in any manner they please. 

John B. Gough says : " I tell you in all sincerity, 
not as in the excitement of speech, but as I would con- 
fess before God, that I would give my right hand if I 
could forget that which I learned in evil company." 
Better it is toward the right conduct of life to consider 
what will be the end of a thing than what is the be- 
ginning of it ; for what promises fair at first may prove 
ill, and what seems at first a disadvantage may prove 
very advantageous. There is a peculiar and appro- 
priate reward for every act, only remember that the 
reward is not given for the merit of the act, but follows 
on it as inevitably in the spiritual kingdom as wheat 
springs from the grain, and barley from its grain, in 
the natural world. 

It is only when long spaces along the shore of the 
sea are taken into account that the grand level is 
found from which the heights and depths are meas- 
ured. And it is only when long spaces of time are 
considered that we find at last the level of public 
opinion, which we call the general judgment of man- 
kind. 

Men already rich, but hasting to be richer, throw 
themselves into wild speculations with the view of 
making money more rapidly than before. With what 
result? Only to land them in hopeless bankruptcy. 
Many instances are at hand to prove this. The em- 
bezzlement of millions has not been thought extraordi- 
nary of recent years. Money has been taken from 






REAPING. 319 

bank deposits to buy up railway shares, or to buy land 
in some remote colony, the speculation for a rise often 
ending in a ruinous fall Then " the bank broke" and 
the downfall came, ending in ruin and desolation to a 
thousand homes. Men have been driven insane, and 
women have prayed to be delivered from their lives. 

If our sons resist us in choosing a career, or, still 
worse, in choosing companions that we believe will 
ruin that career; if our daughters will go and fall in 
love with the last man in the world we would have 
desired for their husbands — well, why is this? These 
young souls were given to us apparently an absolute 
blank page, upon which we might write what we 
chose. We have written. It is we who have formed 
their characters, guided their education, governed their 
morals. Everything they are now we have or are 
supposed to have made them; at least, we once 
thought we should be able to make them. If they 
turn out well we shall assuredly take the credit of it ; 
if they turn out ill — what say we then? That it is 
their fault, or ours? 

It is easier to tie a knot in a cord of wood than to 
do an evil deed and get rid of the consequences. No 
man can go into bad company without suffering for 
it. The homely old proverb has it very tersely: "A 
man can't bite the bottom out of a frying-pan without 
smutting his nose." 

Speaking of the terrors of a death-bed repentance, 
when a life of sin has prepared for the reaping, a well 
known writer says: "The infinite importance of what 
he has to do, the goading conviction that it must be 



320 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

done; the utter inability of doing it; the dreadful com- 
bination, in his mind, of both the necessity and inca- 
pacity; the despair of crowding the concerns of an age 
into a moment; the impossibility of beginning a 
repentance which should have been coucluded, of 
suing for a pardon which should have been obtained ; 
all these complicated concerns without strength, with- 
out time, without hope, with a clouded memory, a dis- 
jointed reason, a wounded spirit, undefined terrors, 
remembered sins, anticipated punishment, an angry 
God, an accusing conscience, all together intolerably 
augment the sufferings of a body which stands in little 
need of the insupportable burthen of a distracted 
mind to aggravate its torments." 

If thou art a child, and hast ever added a sorrow 
to the soul, or a furrow to the silvered brow of an 
affectionate parent; if thou art a husband, and hast ever 
caused the fond bosom that ventured its whole happi- 
ness in thy arms, to doubt one moment of thy kind- 
ness or thy truth ; if thou art a friend, and hast ever 
wronged, in thought, word or deed, the spirit that 
generously confided in thee; if thou art a lover, and 
hast given one unmerited pang to that true heart that 
now lies cold and still beneath thy feet, then be sure 
that every unkind look, every ungracious word, every 
ungentle action, will come thronging back upon thy 
memory, and knocking dolefully at thy soul, be sure 
that thou wilt lie down sorrowing and repentant on 
the grave, and utter the unheard groan, and pour the 
unavailing tear, more deep, more bitter, because un- 
heard and unavailing. 



SELF HELPS. 32 1 



Self Phelps. 



Fight your own battles — ask no favors. You will succeed a thousand 
times better than one who is always beseeching patronage. 

A young man wrote Dr. Prime for advice about 
the way to get an education. Said the doctor : 

" The way of the world now is for you to look 
about and see who will help you to get it. That is not 
the right way. Look about and see what you can do 
to help yourself. Grind your own axe. Support your- 
self by honorable industry, and earn your bread while 
you improve the odds and ends of time in study. 
When you get something ahead, use it to support your- 
self while you learn. Ten thousand men are now 
serving their generation with usefulness and honor who 
never asked anybody to grind an axe for them." 

Many are asking how boys and girls can be en- 
couraged to begin and complete a course of study. 
One suggests the founding of scholarships. Another, 
the obtaining of State aid. But why cannot young 
men, and young women too, earn for themselves their 
education ! Says a leading educator: "We have tried 
it, and with success. Some of the very best students 
we have had have in large part paid their way by their 
own exertions. 

"Give a boy a practicable way to help himself, and 

if he is worthy to succeed, he will succeed, and learn 

self-reliance in the process. The young man with but a 

vague desire to know, needs encouragement to start. 
21 



32 2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

When he has begun, his longing to know more will be 
incentive enough for perseverance. Direct pecuniary 
aid I do not favor ; a scheme to aid young men to help 
themselves I most heartily endorse, and believe that in 
it lies the hope for a better educated laity, aud a more 
effective ministry." 

If you are ever to be anything you must make a 
beginning ; and you must make it yourself. The 
world is getting too practical to help drones, and push 
them along, when there is a busy hive of workers who, 
if anything, live too fast. You must lift up your own 
feet, and if you have a pair of clogs on which clatter 
about your heels, they will soon be worn off and left 
behind in the dusty pathway. Mark out the line which 
you prefer; let truth be the object-glass — honesty the 
surveying chain; and eminence the level with which 
you lay out your field ; and thus prepared, with pru- 
dence on one arm and perseverance on the other, you 
need fear no obstacle. Do not be afraid to take the 
first step. Boldness will beget assurance and the first 
step will, bring you so much nearer the second. But 
if your first step should break down, try again. It 
will be surer and safer by the trial. Besides, if you 
never move, you will never know your own power. A 
man standing still and declaring his inability to walk, 
without making the effort, would be a general laughing- 
stock ; and so, morally, is the man, in our opinion, who 
will not test his own moral and intellectual power ; and 
then gravely informs us that he has " no genius," or 
" no talent," or " no capacity." A man with seeing 



SELF HELPS. 323 

eyes keeping them shut, and complaining that he can- 
not see, is the trumpeter of his own imbecility. 

Every human being has a character of his own, 
which he is not to change or mould into that of an- 
other, but to develop and exalt into the highest form 
of which he is capable. He has duties which no one 
else can perform, an influence which no one else can 
wield, and a conscience with which nothing else must 
conflict. Nothing is more fatal to strength of mind 
than to part with our individuality, or to try to fashion 
ourselves upon another's model. Self-reliance is per- 
fectly compatible with humanity. The more we hon- 
estly feel our deficiencies,- the more necessity do we 
find for personal efforts. We can do for ourselves 
what no other person can do for us, and if we rever- 
ence our moral natures, and use all external influence 
as a means of quickening our internal energy, 
strengthening our faculties, and developing the best 
that is in us, society will have fulfilled her true end for 
us, in exalting the individual nature which she too 
often depresses. 

Don't be whining about not having a fair chance. 
Throw a sensible man out of a window and he'll fall 
on his feet, and ask the nearest way to his work. The 
more you have to begin with, the less you will have in 
the end. Money you earn yourself is much brighter 
than any you get out of dead men's bags. A scant 
breakfast in the morning of life whets the appetite for 
a feast later in the day. He who has tasted a sour 
apple will have the more relish for a sweet one. Your 
present want will make future prosperity all the 



324 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

sweeter. Eighteenpence has set up many a peddler 
in business, and he. has turned it over until he has kept 
his carriage. As for the place you are cast in, don't 
find fault with that; you need not be a horse because 
you were born in a stable. If a bull tossed a man of 
metal sky-high, he would drop down into a good place. 
A hard-working young man with his wits about him will 
make money while others will do nothing but lose it. 

There is nothing which so adds to the treasures of 
the mind and increases its power as its own thinking. 
Learn to think for yourself. It is all very well to hear 
and to read the wisdom of others. But one should 
not let this take the place of his own thought. Many 
persons are like cisterns, they are good to hold the 
thoughts of others. But when the time comes that 
they are forced to rely on themselves, they have no 
power to do so. The outside supply is cut off and the 
cistern runs dry. But if one, like the river, is con- 
stantly fed by his own springs, then, as the learning of 
others comes to him, it unites with his own waters and , 
the stream widens and deepens. 

The only cure for indolence is work; the only cure 
for selfishness is sacrifice ; the only cure for unbelief is 
to shake off the ague of doubt by doing Christ's bid- 
ding ; the only cure for timidity is to plunge into some 
dreaded duty before the chill comes on. ^Esop tells 
us of a countryman who was carelessly driving his 
wagon along a miry lane, when his wheels stuck so 
deep in the clay that the horses came to a stand-still. 
Upon this the man, without making the least effort of 
his own, began to call upon Hercules to come and 






SELF HELPS. 325 

help him out of his trouble. But Hercules bade him 
lay his shoulder to the wheel, assuring him that heaven 
only aided those who endeavored to help themselves. 
It is in vain to expect our prayers to be heard if we 
do not strive as well as pray. 

The child learns to walk by walking, so you must 
learn to live nobly only by acting nobly on all occasions. 
As he who practices in shallow waters will not learn 
to swim nor have strength to breast the wave, so, if 
you practice only in avoiding trials, your heart will 
never have strength for the greater troubles. Your 
life must be a contest with self and evil. In this you 
must be the victor or go down. 

There is a fixed connection between what a man 
admires and what he is ; and remembering this great 
principle, you can decide for yourselves whether you 
are advancing in character, or retrograding, by com- 
paring the objects of your admiration in the past with 
those in the present. 

There is scarcely anything of greater importance 
to a young man than that he should acquire early the 
habit of regular application to some pursuit. Many 
persons who are not of an indolent nature live on, 
from day to day, from month to month, from year to 
year, without accomplishing anything worth while. 
They wonder that others are successful and they are 
not ; that others progress and they remain stationary. 
The difficulty with them is that although they are not 
particularly averse to labor, they have never learnt 
how to work to advantage. They have never formed 
the habit of regular, systematic application. Desultory 



326 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

and merely impulsive efforts are attended by very in- 
sufficient and unsatisfactory results. The first requisite 
is to know what you want to accomplish. Have some 
purpose — some plan. Then see to it that the sun does 
not set on a day in which something has not been done 
to carry forward that plan — to promote that purpose. 
Have, so far as possible, regular hours of work, and 
let no light interruption interfere with them. If you 
take a day's recreation, be sure that on the morrow 
you promptly resume your work, and give to it the 
benefit of refreshed strength and renewed vigor. 

At the end of every week, regularly review your 
work. Consider just how much you have accom- 
plished. If you are satisfied with what you have done, 
it will bring to you a feeling of repose and content. 
If you find you should have done more, then make 
sure that the coming week shall show an improvement 
on the past. Finally, let nothing — no matter what — 
daunt or discourage you. Glory in a resolute and in- 
vincible will! 

If all the young men now coming on the stage 
would scrupulously observe these instructions, what an 
increase of success and of happiness there would be! 



SELF-EDUCATION. 327 



Self Gdugation. 

Ideas go booming through the world louder than cannon ; thoughts 
are mightier than armies. 

Take care of your minds. If you do not store 
them with useful information, to quicken and sharpen 
your intellect by making the most of good books and 
valuable lessons, your minds will soon become vain, 
idle, frivolous and good for nothing. 

Perhaps you have had but little schooling. You 
have had to begin work early. Then, you must teach 
yourself. You must be your own master, and your 
own scholar — a self-educator ; and history furnishes so 
many encouraging examples of self-made men, that 
you have nothing to fear. You may become a great 
statesman, like Franklin ; a great poet, like Burns; a 
great inventor, like Stephenson; a great discoverer, 
like Livingston; a great scholar, like Burritt; only, 
take care of your minds. 

Many of the greatest thinkers and most useful men 
are not college bred. Education is not learning; it is 
the exercise and development of the powers of the 
mind. There are two great methods by which this 
end may be accomplished; it may be done in the halls 
of learning; it is more often done in the conflicts of 
life. 

Self-culture is self-education ; and, with few ex- 
ceptions, the great men of America, if not of the 
world, have been self-made men. And moreover, if 



328 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

we do not educate ourselves aright, other persons, an J 
other influences, will not fail to educate us wrong, for 
whether we attend to it or not, the educating process 
must go on. 

These self-taught men are generally those whose 
situation in life renders it difficult for them to gain 
access to our halls of learning, but who, determined 
to rise from their humble sphere, have, by arduous 
toil and persevering research, gradually elevated them- 
selves in the scale of intelligence, and gained honorable 
niches in the temple of Science. It is to examples so 
rare that fame points proudly. Theirs are the names 
most often heard in the blasts of .her "silver bugle." 

Happy it is for them that the doors of a university 
have been closed against them ; by being obliged to 
depend upon their own strength they have learned a 
lesson of self-reliance which they can never forget. 
Self-culture has called forth the hidden energies of the 
soul, and fitted its votaries to become the pillars and 
bulwarks of society. It has taught them that man is 
not a " leaning willow," but a being " noble in reason 
and infinite in faculties:" that he must not rely wholly 
on foreign aid, but must task his own powers, and be 
able fully to measure his own abilities. This resolute 
spirit, though latent, can, when fanned into a flame, 
lead him through every trying emergency, and teach 
him to remove obstacle after obstacle, till the path lies 
open to the goal of his ambition, the proudest pinnacle 
of science. 

Philosophers have racked their wit and wisdom to 
distinguish man from " other animals " by some single 



SELF-EDUCATION. 329 

and infallible mark. But to us it seems sufficient to 
say, man is a being- capable of self-culture. This 
power at once separates him from the lower orders, 
and makes him akin to higher existences ; while its 
exercise brings him more and more on a level with the 
angels, than which he was originally created but little 
lower. Thus, while the simple possession of this 
faculty' renders man noble, its full cultivation and 
development raises him still higher in the scale of 
being. As in no country are there greater opportuni- 
ties for self-culture than in our own, so in no country 
are there higher motives to persuade us to improve 
them. 

Drudgery is the school of life with stern duty pre- 
siding as the master. It is here that the mind is trained 
to clearer perception and wider views. Laborious 
training is as much necessary for the development of 
the mind as of the body. Such training gives the 
mind solid, lasting strength, whereby it is enabled to 
bear heavy burdens. Here, too, the mind is taught to 
labor with skill ; as the laborer, in handling heavy 
boxes and barrels, soon learns by experience how to 
" take hold " of his burden, so here the mind soon 
learns to grasp and grapple with a proposition in such 
a way that it readily yields to the skilled force brought 
to bear upon it. Here the mind comes to perceive its 
own powers, to know what it can and cannot do ; and 
by sufficient training it is capable of attaining almost 
anything. It is the scholar who has spent years of 
weary toil in his study who can see to the bottom of a 
proposition at a glance. Do you wish to produce 



32>0 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

thoughts that shall carry with them the force of the 
heavy boulder rushing down from its place on the 
mountain crag? Then train well your mind in the 
school of drudgery. Do you wish to frame sentences 
so beautiful, so grand, so moving that they will set 
men's- souls on fire? Then be willing to toil over 
words until the head aches of weariness. 

It is in this school that the heart is trained. One 
of the grandest lessons ever learned in this life is to 
"learn to labor and to wait." There is no way in 
which this lesson can be so well learned as by laboring 
and waiting ; do the hard work of life and look and 
hope for better things. 

A dull axe never loves grindstones, but a keen 
workman does; and he puts his tools on them in order 
that they may be sharp. And men do not like grind- 
ing; but they are dull for purposes which God designs 
to work out with them, and therefore he is grinding 
them. 

There is no school like God's large school-house. 
And there are no school-days to compare with the three- 
score and ten years in which we move to and fro about 
this school-house of our Father, with our books not 
slung over our shoulder, but carried in the heart. Ex- 
perience is the Lord's school, and they who are taught 
by him usually learn by the mistakes they make that 
they have no wisdom, and by the slips and falls they 
meet with that they have no strength. 

Every person has two educations — one which he 
receives from others, and one, more important, which 
he gives himself. There is no kind of knowledge 



SELF-EDUCATION. 33 1 

which, in the hands of the diligent and skilful, will not 
turn to account. Honey exudes from all flowers, the 
bitter not excepted ; and the bee knows how to ex- 
tract it. He who has not mastered himself, by whom 
can he not be overcome ? 

Begin the education of the heart, not with the 
cultivation of noble propensities, but with the cutting 
away of those that are evil. When once the noxious 
herbs are withered and rooted out, then the more 
noble plants, strong in themselves, will shoot upwards. 
The virtues, like the body, become strong and healthy 
more by labor than nourishment. 

Begin early in life to collect libraries of your own. 
Begin, if necessary, with a single book ; and when you 
find or hear of any first-rate book, obtain it if you can. 
After a while get another, as you are able, and be sure 
to read it. In this way, when you are men, you will 
have good libraries in your heads as well as on your 
shelves. 

We advise all young people to acquire in early life 
the habit of using good language, both in speaking 
and writing, and also to abandon the use of slang 
words and phrases. The longer they live, the more 
difficult the acquisition of good language will be, and 
if the golden age of youth — the proper time for the 
acquisition of language — be passed in its abuse, the 
unfortunate victim of neglected education .is very pro- 
bably doomed to talk slang for life. Money is not 
necessary to procure this education. Every man has 
it in his power. He has merely to use the language 



332 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

which he reads, instead of the slang which he hears ; 
to form his taste from the best speakers and poets of 
the country ; to treasure up choice phrases in his 
memory, and habituate himself to their use, avdiding 
at the same time that pedantic precision and bombast 
which show rather the weakness of vain ambition than 
the polish of an educated mind. 

A " liberal education " is a capital thing, and the 
thousands of young men who are now honored with 
the title of A. B. are to be congratulated upon the 
good fortune which has permitted them to acquire the 
mental discipline resulting from a four-years' course 
of academic study. But these young men must not 
make the mistake of supposing that this discipline is 
an all-sufficient preparation for the higher callings of 
life. That is, the young men who propose to enter 
any of the branches of professional life, for instance, 
must not imagine that the fact of their having a college 
education will permit them to leap to the top rung 
of the ladder at once. The discipline they have is 
valuable, but chiefly so as a basis for the acquirement 
of practical knowledge, without which success is im- 
possible. By practical knowledge we mean acquaint- 
ance with the minutiae or little details which go to 
make up all occupations. Such knowledge a college 
education cannot give, and is not intended to give. 
It is only to be acquired by patient application. The 
discipline of the college curriculum must be supple- 
mented by another kind of discipline, namely, the dis- 
cipline of drudgery. No one, however largely en- 



THE BEST BOOKS,. Z^X 

dowed with mental power, can be exempted from the 
necessity of acquiring this discipline. It is far more 
essential to success than the discipline furnished by a 
college course. 

- S i 

<5he Besju Booi^s. 

Life is far too short to read every attractive book. 
Could we present a list of good books which it would 
benefit every young person to read, not one tenth of 
the number could be read. Our advice would be, 
trust to the judgment of your friends, who are older 
and have wider knowledge. Never spend your time in 
reading a book concerning which you know nothing 
favorable. Never read any book whose moral tone is 
objectionable. 

Good books are better friends than good men. A 
good book faces you with its opinions in black and 
white, while a good man sometimes, however unwit- 
tingly, vilifies and vilipends you at your back. 

The influence of true literature is always ennobling. 
Reed, in his beautiful work on " English Literature," 
defines literature to be whatever commends itself to 
the heart and mind, of mankind at large. Such are the 
works of Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, Milton, Bunyan, 
Scott, Goethe, Dickens, Tennyson, Longfellow, and 
many .other writers, who will doubtless be read and 
admired all over the world to the end of time. How 
it strengthens our love for our fellow-man to know 
that in every land and in every clime, minds and hearts 



334 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

are so much alike that they respond in unison to the 
master touch of genius! How it thrills us in reading, 
to find our own thoughts suddenly brought before us 
by some great writer, clothed in such words as we 
could never utter ! But we know that we are akin to 
him, for does not heart answer to heart, and mind to 
mind, as we see before us a transcript of our own 
thoughts? — thoughts which may have been so vague 
and fleeting as to elude farther search for them — but 
here they are; we have found them at last, clothed in 
enduring beauty, and made palpable by the genius of 
another. 

Who can read standard literature, who can hold 
converse with the great writers without feeling his 
better nature ennobled and strengthened? How we 
learn to love the authors through their books — to feel 
an interest in all that concerned their every-day lives 
— and, how earnestly we hope to meet them and 
spend whole days in their company in the better land! 

Books are good or bad, according to the effect 
which they have upon the minds of the -readers. 
Especially is this true of works of fiction. Too much 
light literature is not good for anyone, but a judicious 
number of well selected novels, properly read, will 
prove a source of both instruction and entertainment. 
The tales of Walter Scott, for instance, will kindle the 
imagination and fire the heart with a love of the beau- 
tiful in nature and the good and true among mankind. 

Printers and publishers of namby-pamby books, of 
evil and outrageous works, of flashy novels, of "Pirates' 
Own Books," of sensational works of all kinds, and 



THE BEST BOOKS. 335 

the spawn of " Sunday " good-Lord-and-good-devil 
periodicals, are sending out thousands if not millions 
of enticing sheets, full of gaudy, attractive, deceptive 
pictures, in whole or in half sheets, with stories ending 
in such a way as to entrap the young and ignorant to 
send for future numbers, bating them on (like fish 
near the hook) to obtain one mawkish, miserable, 
devilish thine after another. 

Some of these books or periodicals profess great 
good, and really have some pure and sensible read- 
ing, yet on the whole are most injurious and de- 
structive. 

But this presence of some proper and even whole- 
some matter is where the evil lies. One dead fly 
spoils the ointment. Who would give his child a stick 
of candy in which was hid a grain of deadly poison? 
Who will buy for his family a sack of flour in which 
lies concealed a dose of arsenic? And just $o danger- 
ous, yet so disguised is many a book, magazine, or 
paper wherein is some matter good enough in itself, but 
yet a decoy for some picture, story, anecdote, hint or 
advertisement that is demoralizing, indecent, dishonest, 
or of a debasing and injurious tendency. 

Some parents and guardians are criminally care- 
less in this respect. They permit children to receive, 
buy and send for corrupting yet enticing and specious 
printed matter, which the enemy of all good and his 
dupes and emissaries issue, secretly, or more or less 
openly. Their cunning is diabolical, and they injure 
many young men and maidens of the best families. 

" If," said the late Daniel Webster to a friend, 



33^ WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

" religious books are not widely circulated among the 
masses in this country, and the people do not become 
religious, I do not know what is to become of us as a 
nation." And the thought is one to cause solemn 
reflection on the part of every patriot and Christian. 
If truth be not diffused, error will be; if God and his 
word are not known and received, the devil and his 
works will gain the ascendency; if the evangelical 
volume does not reach every hamlet, the pages of a 
corrupt and licentious literature will; if the power of 
the gospel is not felt through the length and breadth 
of the land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and 
misery, corruption and drunkenness will reign without 
mitigation or end. 

The flooding of the land with dime novels and with 
infamous periodicals of the cheaper and coarser kind 
acts like (tree's enchantment on wide circles of youth. 
No doubt, it is a frequent incitement to crime, and, 
on the whole, is one of the most; monstrous of the un- 
disguised evils in the modern days of cheap printing. 
Let a boy learn that some publications are not fit to be 
handled with the tongs. Let parents exclude from the 
family mansion the frogs and vipers that swarm forth 
from the oozy marshes of the Satanic press. . Let the 
dull boy make the acquaintance of Cooper, Scott, 
Defoe and "Pilgrim's Progress" — a book by no means 
outgrown. Personally I must confess great indebted- 
ness to the "Rollo" books, the "Jonas" books and 
"The Young Christian." 

Over every library-case should stand the words 
"Avoid rubbish." A second-rate book, however good, 



THE BEST BOOKS. 2)Z7 

is a mischief if it occupies the time we ought to devote 
to a first-rate. In regard to reading, as well as to much 
else, there is deep wisdom in a German proverb which 
asserts that the better is a great enemy of the best. 

To the "Poor Clerk," muscle is cheap, brains are 
dear. Men make a mistake in supposing they have a 
natural, inalienable right to "enjoyment and pleasure 
in this life," or to friends. You must earn them. If 
you play billiards or smoke, stop it for a week or two, 
and with the savings buy Samuel Smiles' "Self Help," 
or, a more readable book, perhaps, but less profitable 
to you, Mathews' " Getting on in the World," and, 
after you have read either or both, get Smiles' "Thrift," 
Then if possible, get "The Royal Path of Life,'.' and 
make it your every-day companion. Another book 
that every young man should possess is called " The 
Business Man's Bible." The proverbs of Solomon 
are the best guide to wisdom in business matters that 
can be found. The home ought no more to be with- 
out a library than without a dining-room and kitchen. 
This does not require capital, only time and forecast ; 
there are now cheap editions of the best books. At 
first buy only books that you want immediately to 
read. Reference books are an exception; these are 
the foundations of a good library. Exercise a choice 
in editions; the' lowest priced are not always the 
cheapest. Have a place for your library. 

A good book, whether, a novel or not, is one that 

leaves you farther on than when ^you took it up. If 

when you drop it, it drops you down in the. same old 

spot, with no finer outlook, no cleared vision; no 
22 



33^ WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

stimulated desires for that which is better and higher,, 
it is in no sense a good book. 

Next to traveling and seeing new scenes and peo- 
ples and customs for oneself, we know of no better 
diversion, or one more healthful and recuperating to 
the mind and heart, than the reading of some of the 
excellent books of travel which some of those more 
fortunate people who have travelled with keen obser- 
vation have written for us. A multitude of such books, 
worthy of every one's attention, have been given to 
the world. 



Q5iw, Wisdom and ^umoi^. 

What a dull, plodding, trampling, clanking world 
the ordinary intercourse of society would be without 
wit to enliven and brighten it ! When two men meet 
they seem to be kept at bay through the estranging 
effects of absence, until some sportive sally opens their 
hearts to each other. Nor does anything spread cheer- 
fulness so rapidly over a whole party or assemblage 
of people, however large. Reason expands the soul 
of the philosopher, imagination glorifies the poet, and 
breathes a breath of spring through the young and 
genial; but if we take into account the numberless 
glances and gleams whereby wit lightens our every 
day, hardly any power ministers so bountifully to the 
innocent pleasures of mankind. 

Speaking of wit, Hannah . More remarks : " A 
woman who possesses this quality has received a most ■ 



WIT, WISDOM AND HUMOR. 339 

dangerous present, perhaps not less so than beauty 
itself; especially if it be not sheathed in a temper 
peculiarly inoffensive, chastened by a most correct 
judgment, and restrained by more prudence than falls to 
the common lot. But those who actually possess this 
rare talent, cannot be too abstinent in the use of it. 
It often makes admirers, but it never makes. friends." 

The meaning of an extraordinary man is, that he is 
eight men, not one man ; that he has as much wit as 
if he had no sense, and as much sense as if he had no 
wit; that his conduct is as judicious as if he were the 
dullest of human beings, and his imagination as 
brilliant as if he were irretrievably ruined. But when 
wit is combined with sense and information ; when it 
is softened by benevolence, and restrained by strong 
principle ; when it is in the hands of a man who can 
use it and despise it, who can be witty and something 
much better than witty, who loves honor, justice, 
decency, good-nature, morality and religion ten 
thousand times better than wit; — wit is then a beauti- 
ful part of our nature. 

There is no more interesting spectacle than to see 
the effects of wit upon the different characters of men ; 
than to observe it expanding caution, relaxing dignity, 
unfreezing coldness — teaching age and care and pain 
to smile, extorting reluctant gleams of pleasure from ~i_ 
melancholy, and charming even the pangs of grief. 
It is pleasant to observe how it penetrates through • 
the coldness and awkwardness of society, gradually 
bringing men nearer together, and, like the combined 
force of wine and oil, giving every man a glad heart and 



34-0 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

a shining countenance. Genuine and innocent wit like 
this is surely the flavor of the mind! Man could direct 
his ways by plain reason, and support his life by tasteless 
food ; but God has given us wit, and flavor, and 
laughter, arid perfumes, to enliven the days of man's 
pilgrimage, and to "charm his painful steps over the 
burning marl." 

Stearne says: "I live in a constant endeavor to fence 
against the infirmities of ill-health, and other evils of 
life, by mirth. I am persuaded that every time a man 
smiles — but much more so when he laughs — it adds 
something to this fragment of life." The humorous 
man usually enjoys a sound body and lives a long life. 
"Laugh and grow fat" is genuine and practical 
philosophy. 

Some people have no appreciation of humor. We 
say they are not quick-witted. We have all read 
about the man who heard his friend's joke in perfect 
soberness, and half an hour later, when the subject 
was forgotten and the company were engaged in 
serious conversation, he burst out in uncontrollable 
laughter, to the surprise and annoyance of those 
about him. 

How naturally these qualities — wit, wisdom and 
humor, — fit each other, and with the presence of one 
we naturally expect the . other. Wisdom is counted 
above rubies, and while it may not contribute so largely 
to immediate pleasure as wit, it is far more abiding 
and durable, as well as more useful. Good humor 
tempers and strengthens the value of the others. 

The following sarcastic rules for behavior are said 



WIT, WISDOM AND HUMOR.- 34I 

by Goldsmith to have been drawn up by an indignant 
philosopher : — 

1. " If you be a rich man, you may enter the 
room with three loud hems, march deliberately up to 
the chimney, and turn your back to the fire. 

2. " If you be a poor man, I would advise you to 
shrink into the room as fast as you can, and place 
yourself, as usual, upon a corner of a chair, in a re- 
mote corner. 

3. " If you be young, and live with an old man, I 
would advise you not to like gravy. I was disin- 
herited myself for liking gravy." 

A friend of Dean Swift's one day sent him a tur- 
bot as a present, by a servant lad who had frequently 
been on similar errands but had never received any- 
thing from the dean for his trouble. Having gained 
admission, he opened the study door and, putting down 
the fish on the floor, cried out rudely, " Master has sent 
you a turbot!" 

" Young man," said the dean, rising from his easy- 
chair, " is that the way you deliver a message ? Let 
me teach you better manners. Sit down in my chair, 
we will change places, and I will show you how to be- 
have in future." 

The boy sat down, and the dean going out, came 
up to the door and, making a low bow, said, " Sir, mas- 
ter presents his kind compliments, hopes you are well 
and requests your acceptance of a small present." 

" Does he ?" replied the boy. " Return him my 
best thanks, and there's half a crown for yourself." 



3/J-2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

The dean thus caught in his own trap, laughed 
heartily, and gave the boy a crown for his ready wit. 

Dr. Malcom, in his work on Persia, says : " The 
celebrated Aboo Yusuph, who was Judge of Bagdad in 
the reign of Caliph Hadee, was a very remarkable in- 
stance of that humility which distinguishes true wisdom. 
It is related of this judge that on one occasion, after a pa- 
tient investigation of facts, he declared that his knowl- 
edge was not competent to decide upon the case 
before him. " Pray do you expect," said a pert courtier, 
who heard this declaration, " that the Caliph is to 
pay for your ignorance !" " I do not," was the mild re- 
ply ; "the Caliph pays me, and well, for what I do 
know ; if he were to attempt to pay me for what I do 
not know, the treasures of this Empire would not 
suffice." 

A drunkard once reeled up to him with the remark, 
" Mr. Whitefield, I am one of your converts." " I think 
it very likely," was the reply ; " for I am sure you are 
none of God's." 

A rather simple young man, conceited and censo- 
rious, while talking to a young lady at a party, pointed 
towards a couple that he supposed to be in an adjoining 
room, and said, "Just look at that conceited young 
prig ! Isn't it perfectly absurd for such boys to go 
into society ?" 

" Why," exclaimed his companion, " that isn't a 
door ; it's a mirror." 

"Will you have some strawberries ? " asked a lady 
of a guest. " Yes, madam, yes. I eat strawberries with 
enthusiasm." " Do tell ? well, we haven't anything 



WIT, WISDOM AND HUMOR. . 343 

but cream and sugar for 'em this evening," said the 
matter-of-fact hostess. 

An old Scotch woman, who had no relish for modern' 
church music, was expressing her dislike of the singing 
in her own church one day, when a neighbor said, 
" Why, that was a very old anthem. David sang that 
anthem to Saul." To this she replied, " Weel, weel, I 
noo for the first time understand why Saul threw his 
javelin at David when the lad sang for him." 

Francis First being desirous to raise one of the 
most learned men of the times to the highest dignities 
of the church, asked him if he was of noble descent. 
"Your majesty," answered the abbot, "there were 
three brothers in Noah's ark, but I cannot tell positively 
from which of them I am descended." He obtained 
the post. 

Two young men out riding were passing a farm- 
house where a farmer was trying to harness a mule. 
"Won't he draw?" said one of the horsemen. "Of 
course he will," said the farmer; "he draws the 
attention of every fool that passes." 

A gentleman meeting one of his friends who was 
insolvent, expressed great concern for his embarrass- 
ment. " You are mistaken, my dear sir," was the 
reply; "it is not I — it is my creditors who are em- 
barrassed." 

A little girl once said that she would be very glad 
to go to heaven, because they had plenty of preserves 
there. On being cross-examined, she took down her 
catechism, and triumphantly read, "Why ought the 



344 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

saints to love God? " "Because he makes, preserves 
and keeps them." 

"Are you lost, my little fellow?" asked a gentle- 
man of a four-year-old boy one day, who was crying 
for his mother. " No, sir ;" sobbed the miniature man, 
"but my mother is." 

"You don't know how it pains me to punish you," 
said the teacher. " I guess there's the most pain at 
my end of the stick," replied the boy, feelingly; "'tany 
rate I'd be willing to swap." 

A short time ago a little urchin in Westminster saw 
a shilling lying on the pavement. He no sooner 
picked it up than it was claimed by a carman. " Your 
shilling hadn't got a hole in it ? " said the boy stoutly. 
"Yes, it has," said the rogue of a carman. "Then this 
'un aint," replied the boy, walking off triumphantly. 

Open your mouth and purse cautiously, and your 
stock of wealth and reputation shall, at least in repute, 
be great. He who does not look out for himself knows 
not the world. He who does not look into himself knows 
not men. It is not the height to which men are ad- 
vanced that makes them giddy, but the contempt with 
which they look down on those below them. The 
winter's frost must rend the burr of the nut before the 
nut is seen. So adversity tempers the human heart to 
discover its real worth. 

It is all very well to be a promising youth, but the 
hard part is to keep your promise in after-life. The 
earnestness of life is the only passport to the satisfac- 
tion of life. To teach one who has tio curiosity to 
learn, is to sow a field without plowing it. 



atoms. 345 

He that can, please nobody is not so much to be 
pitied as he that nobody can please. The pretty face 
of a woman is like a clock's, not much account unless 
there are good works back of it. A sociable man is 
one who, when he has ten minutes to spare, goes and 
bothers somebody who hasn't. The lady who fell 
back on her dignity came near breaking it. The maple 
tree is an emblem of Christian forbearance. The more 
it is bored the more sweetness it exudes. 

Of how much importance is an atom. It is the 
"last feather " that breaks the camel's back, and so, 
an atom may make or mar a lifetime. Compare our 
life with that of an insect. A little ant crawls upon 
the paper before me. A breath blows it away and I * 
see it no more. But what becomes of it ? It is lodged 
upon the ground-, or some projection above the ground, 
and it again takes up its active march. Whither is it 
going? From whence did it come? What must be 
the infinite love of that great Creator who can call 
into being, and endow with motive power and instinctive 
wisdom, a myriad of such little atoms, moving about, 
having a definite object, pursuing that object persist- 
ently, and at last laying down the life, small though it 
be, in the completion of the time allotted by that great 
Creator. How small is the greatest brain power of 
man when compared with the power possessed by the 



.346 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

Infinite mind, without whose permission not a hair of 
your head falls. 

Insects of various kinds may be seen in the cavities 
of a grain of sand. Mould is a forest of beautiful 
trees, with branches, leaves and fruit. Butterflies 
are feathered. Hairs are hollow tubes. The surface 
of our bodies is covered with scales like a fish ; a single 
grain of sand would cover one hundred and fifty of 
these scales, and yet a scale covers five hundred 
pores. Through these narrow openings the per- 
spiration forces itself like water through a sieve. 
Each drop of stagnant water contains a world of 
living creatures, swimming with as much liberty as 
whales in the sea. Each leaf has a colony of insects 
grazing on it like cows on a meadow. Yes, even the 
ugliest plant that grows shows some remarkable prop- 
erty when closely examined. 

A man weighing one hundred and fifty-four pounds 
contains one hundred and sixteen pounds of water. 
In plants the proportion of water sometimes reaches 
ninety-nine per cent. 

One side of the body tends to outwalk the other 
side: with the eyes shut a person invariably walks to 
the right. At the age of ten years one may expect to 
live forty-eight years and four months. There are 
two thousand seven hundred and fifty different lan- 
guages. The hair of the Chinese has a characteristic 
odor of musk, which is so persistent that it cannot be 
concealed by cosmetics, nor can it be destroyed by 
washing with potash. 

It has been estimated by the astronomers that 



atoms. 347 

there are one hundred millions of stars now visible 
through the telescope, which cannot be seen by the 
unaided eye; and is it not probable that in the regions 
of infinite space there are countless worlds which man, 
not even with the assistance of the most powerful 
magnifying-glasses, will ever behold ? Far beyond the 
reach of mortal vision they wheel on in their rapid 
course, unseen save by the eye of omnipotence, or the 
adoring angels and seraphim around the throne on 
high. Countless are these worlds ; each doubtless, has 
its own peculiar orbit, never interfering with the motion 
of another. The power which placed them there has 
also appointed their bounds, beyond which they cannot 
pass. 

Notwithstanding the seeming insignificance of such 
trinkets as beads, their history reveals some very curi- 
ous facts. For example, it shows that the lowest order 
of men had beads composed of wood and bones, and 
as the race made progress towards civilization, there 
was a corresponding change in the style, character and 
material of the ornaments. Also that there is no evi- 
dence that the prehistoric races of America had any 
method of making glass ; yet in the mounds occasional 
glass beads are found, undoubtedly of Venetian manu- 
facture, showing some connection between the conti- 
nents anterior to the time of Amerigo Vespucci. Also 
that some of the beads found in Egypt and other 
localities, in connection with mummies, were made of 
jasper, cornelian and garnet, and no knowledge has 
been transmitted to us how the hole could have been 
made through these exceedingly hard stones. 



34-8 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

It is estimated that there are six thousand kinds of 
postage stamps in the various countries of the Eastern 
and Western Hemispheres. Among them may be found 
pictures of five emperors, eighteen kings, three queens 
and a large number of presidents. Some of the 
stamps bear coats-of-arms, and others such emblems 
as crowns, keys, anchors, eagles, lions, horses, railway 
trains and other things. Pieces of linen are in exist- 
ence which were woven four thousand years ago/ The 
ancient Egyptians used modern locks with iron keys. 
The first lifeboat was made in France, in the year 1 777. 
The first lighthouse in England was built in a.d. 44, 
during the reign of Claudius. The first printed news- 
paper appeared in England in the year 1622, during the 
reign of James First. Newspapers at that time were 
made up in the form of small quarto pamphlets. Fric- 
tion-matches were invented in 1829. The first steam- 
boat in America was made by John Fitch, and ran on 
the Schuylkill river in 1787, and was pronounced a 
success. Mr. Fitch was poor and without influential 
friends, and his schemes were laughed at, and he 
finally died in obscurity and lies buried at Bardstown, 
Ky. The first steamboat on the Hudson river passed 
the city of Hudson, August 17, 1807. The Govern- 
ment of the United States was established at Wash- 
ington in August 1800. There are still one thousand 
six hundred Indians in Massachusetts. The great 
plague broke out in London, August 22, 1665. In five 
weeks the deaths reached thirty-eight thousand one 
hundred and ninety-five. The "Marseillaise Hynmn" 
was composed in 1792 by Rouget de Lisle. The 



atoms. 349 

earthquake at Lisbon in 1755 killed thirty thousand 
people. It cost fifty million dollars to build the docks 
in Liverpool. The first temperance society in this 
country was organized in Saratoga county, New York, 
in March, 1808. The Bible has been translated into 
two hundred and twenty-six languages and dialects, 
and in the last eighty years one hundred and forty- 
eight millions of copies have been printed and put 
in circulation. This does not look as if the book, 
or the religion which it teaches, were likely to pass 
from the memory of the world. Rev. S. F. Smith, 
who wrote " My Country, 'Tis of Thee," is still living 
in Newton, Mass. He says he wrote the verses on 
a waste scrap of paper one dismal day in February, 
1832, while at Andover Seminary, and "had no inten- 
tion nor ambition to create anything that should have 
a national reputation." 

Hiddenite is the name of a new gem of the emerald 
class, of a beautiful clear green color, and worth about 
the same as a diamond. It has been found only in 
Alexander county, N. C. Flax is a native of Persia. 
Cotton is a native of India, and was brought to the 
United States in 1789. Cabbage is a native of the 
sea-shores of Europe. Indian corn, tobacco and the 
Irish potato are natives of America, and were never 
known to the rest of the world until this land was dis- 
covered. Barley is supposed to be a native of Central 
Asia, and is the oldest cultivated grain, being the corn 
mentioned in the Bible. The apple springs from the 
crab-apple, the pear from the wild pear, a native of 



( 



35° WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

Europe and Asia. The peach is a native of Persia,, 
and belongs to the almond family of trees. 

Waste nothing, — neither time, money, talent, in- 
fluence, nor opportunity. Speaking the truth is easier 
than lying, and you will not then be obliged to retract 
your statements. Men who flatter persons for their 
favor will finally slander them for their faults. When 
rogues get mad at each other, honest men can stand 
still and accept the truth they tell. Honest poverty is 
better than wicked wealth. The just find blessings in 
the humblest lot; but curses will fly as high as a wicked 
man can climb. Keep well employed, and the hours 
will move fast enough. What you hate in others cor- 
rect in yourself. Rule your tongue, or your tongue 
will rule you. One advantage gained by calamities is, 
to know how to smypathize with others in the like 
troubles. 

One trouble makes us forget a thousand mercies.. 
Nothing keeps a man from knowledge and wisdom 
like thinking he has both. That God is in heaven 
makes death acceptable ; if he were not, life itself 
would be unendurable. Innocence is a flower which 
withers when touched, but blooms not again though it 
be watered with tears. The true way to advance 
another's virtue is to follow it, and the best means to 
cry down another's vice is to decline it. As threshing 
separates wheat from the chaff, so does affliction purify 
virtue. Who never walks save where he sees men's 
tracks makes no discoveries. Adversity is the trial of 
principle. Without it a man hardly knows whether he 
is honest or not. It is one of the worst of errors to 



ATOMS. 351 

suppose that there is any other path of safety except 
that of duty. The darkest hour in the history of any 
young man is when he sits down to study how to get 
money without honestly earning it. 

If you talk much, beware of those who listen atten- 
tively. He is happy whose circumstances suit his 
temper: he is more excellent who can suit his temper 
to circumstances. Obstinacy is the heroism of little 
minds. Vice stings in pleasure, but virtue consoles in 
pain. Man "cannot become perfect in a hundred years; 
but he can become corrupt in less than a day. Doc- 
trines are of use only as they are practiced ; men may 
go to perdition with their heads full of truth. 

Judge not of a ship as she lies on the stocks. One 
door never shuts, but another opens. He who keeps 
off the ice will not slip through. Every sprat nowa- 
days fancies itself a herring. Better slip with foot 
than tongue. Exercise is the best fire for cold limbs. 
Shrouds have no pockets. Love not the decanter, 
lest you gallop to poverty. Much laughter, little wit. 
A calm hour with God is worth a lifetime with^ man. 
Never bet even a farthing cake. Grumbling makes 
the loaf no larger. He lives longest who is awake 
most hours. No gains without pains. Such as ye 
give, such shall ye get. Linseys, paid for, keep out 
cold, silks on credit soon grow old. Overreachers 
overreach themselves. 



35 2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 



(STIFLES. 

Trifles are the hinges of destiny. 

If trifles are facts, they cease to be trivial ; and in 
these stirring times, when our allotted leisure is becom- 
ing so infinitesimally small, the terse and the epigram- 
matic are to be preferred to the diffuse and discursive 
in our reading. It would be temerity to appropriate 
to our humble essays the witty analysis of a celebrated 
author, and pretend that they "have profundity 
without obscurity, perspicuity without prolixity, orna- 
ment without glare, terseness without barrenness, 
penetration without subtlety, comprehensiveness with- 
out digression." 

Odd in their plan and arrangement, they contain 
many odd sayings and selections, facts and fancies 
from odd and out-of-the-way authors, and are fitted for 
odd half-hours. 

The publication of a book seems a trivial occur- 
rence ; but who can tell the influence, either for weal 
or woe, which it may exert ? Two centuries ago, within 
the walls of a prison, was written the immortal Pil- 
grim's Progress, which now goes forth by millions to 
every quarter of the globe, leading multitudes to the 
cross of Christ. 

A learned writer has said, " There is nothing on 
earth so small that it may not produce great things." 

Planets govern not the soul, nor guide the destinies of man : 

But trifles lighter than straw are levers in the building up of character. 



TRIFLES. 353 

If we had eyes adapted to the sight, we could see, 
on looking into the smallest seed, the future flower or 
tree inclosed in it. God will look into our feelings 
and motives as into seeds ; by those embryos of action 
he will infallibly determine what we are, and will show 
what we should have been, had there been scope and 
stage for their development and maturity. Nothing 
will be made light of. The very dust of the balances 
shall be taken into account. It is in the moral world 
as it is in the natural, where every substance weighs 
something ; though we speak of imponderable bodies, 
yet nature knows nothing of positive levity ; and were 
men possessed of the necessary scales, the requisite 
instrument, we should find the same holds true in the 
moral world. Nothing is insignificant on which sin 
has breathed the breath of hell ; everything is impor- 
tant in which holiness has impressed itself in the 
painted characters. However unimportant now in the 
estimation of men, yet, when placed in the light of the 
divine countenance, like the atom in the sun's rays, it 
shall be deserving attention ; and as the minutest 
molecule of matter contains all the primordial elements 
of a world, so the least atom of this mind shall be 
found to include in it the essential elements of heaven. 

Little words, not eloquent speeches nor sermons ; 
little deeds, not miracles nor battles, nor one great act 
or mighty martyrdom, make up the true Christian life. 
The little constant sunbeam, not the lightning ; the 
waters of Shiloh, " that go softly " on their meek 
mission of refreshment, not the waters of the river 

23 



354 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

"great and mighty," rushing down in torrents with 
noise and force, are the true symbols of a holy life. 

The avoidance of little evils, little sins, little 
inconsistencies, little weaknesses, little follies, little 
indiscretions and imprudences, little foibles, and in- 
dulgences of self and of the flesh, little acts of 
indolence, of indecision, or slovenliness, or cowardice, 
little equivocations or aberrations from high integrity, 
little bits of worldliness and gaiety, little indifferences 
to the feelings or wishes of others, little outbreaks of 
temper, crossness, selfishness and vanity; the avoid- 
ance of such little things as these goes far to make up at 
least the negative beauty of a holy life. 

And then attention to the little duties of the day 
and hour, in public transactions or private dealings 
or family arrangements ; to the little words and tones; 
little benevolences or forbearances or tendernesses ; 
little self-denials and self-restraints; little plans of 
quiet kindness and thoughtful consideration for others ; 
punctuality and method, and true aim, in the ordering 
of each day — these are the active developments of 
a holy life, the rich and divine mosaics of which it is 
composed. 

The preciousness of little things was never more 
beautifully expressed than in the following: "Little 
words are the sweetest to hear; little charities fly the 
farthest, and stay the longest on the wing; little lakes 
are the stillest ; little hearts are the fullest ; little farms 
are the best tilled ; little books are the most read, and 
little songs are the most loved." 

All sufferings, all blessings, all ordinances, all 



TRIFLES. 355 

graces, all common gifts — nay, our very falls, yea, 
Satan himself, with all his instruments — as over-mas- 
tered and ruled by God, have this injunction upon 
them, to further God's intendment to us, and a prohi- 
bition to do us no harm. 

Agustus taxed the world for civil ends ; but God's 
providence used this as a means for Christ to be born 
at Bethlehem. Ahasuerus could not sleep, and there- 
fore calls for the chronicles, the reading of which occa- 
sioned the Jews' delivery. God often disposeth little 
occasions to great purposes; and by those very ways, 
proud men have gone about to withstand God's coun- 
sels, they have fulfilled them. 

There are chords in the human heart, strange vary- 
ing strings, which are only struck by accident ; which 
will remain mute and senseless to appeals the most 
passionate and earnest, and respond at last to the 
slightest casual touch. In the most insensible or 
childish minds there is some train of reflection which 
art can seldom lead, or skill assist, but which will reveal 
itself, as great truths have done, by chance, and when 
the discoverer has the plainest and simplest end in 
view. 

Springing from the faintest causes, grand results 
have often shown that there is power in trifles. 

Almost all the great discoveries which have pre- 
eminently distinguished the late centuries have been 
the result, not so much of profound research as of ac- 
cident. For instance/the simple circumstances which 
led to the discovery of the law of gravitation. 

A hundred years later, in an humble cottage in 



356 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

Scotland, a little boy sat by his mother's kitchen fire. 
In an attitude of deepest attention he gazed at the 
tea-kettle, singing on the hearth. What did he see in 
the misty wreaths of steam, which ever and anon es- 
caped from the spout, or slowly lifted the lid of the 
kettle? The expansive — the propelling power of 
steam ! And the grand idea enters his mind of apply- 
ing this powerful agent to machinery. Little did his 
mother dream when she chided her son for what she 
considered a foolish habit, that he was making a 
great discovery, for which he would not only receive 
a proud title, but the entire thanks of a grateful 
world ; for the improvement in the steam engine, 
which this discovery enabled Watt to make, has saved 
an amount of labor which no mathematician can esti- 
mate. 

Again we say, despise not small beginnings, nor 
look with supercilious contempt upon everything 
which appears insignificant and trifling. Trifles are 
not so plenty in this world as many of us imagine. A 
philosopher has observed that wars, involving mischief 
to great nations, have arisen from a ministerial dispatch 
being written in a fit of indigestion ! When Alexander 
Pope received his present of Turkey figs, he little 
thought that a twig from the basket was to be the 
means of introducing the weeping willow into England 
and America. 

So is this world made up of and governed by trifles, 
at first too small to attract notice ; and the wise man 
will not only cultivate sharp eyes, but attentive habits, 
making the most and the best of everything. " It is 



TRIFLES. 357 

not," said Plutarch, "in the most distinguished exploits 
that men's virtues or vices may be best discovered, 
but frequently an action of small note, a short saying, 
or a jest, that distinguishes a person's real character 
more than the greatest battles or the most important 
actions." 

Even "genius loves to nestle in strange places," 
and confers its meeds of honor in the most obscure 
pathways. The very humblest households have fre- 
quently been the nurseries of the most gifted minds. 
We see Galileo soliciting the loan of a few shillings 
with which to purchase the materials for constructing 
his telescope, an instrument which has brought thou- 
sands of stars, never before seen, within the sphere of 
mortal vision — thus throwing a flood of effulgence on 
the sublime science of astronomy. 

The great moments of life are but moments like 
the others. Your doom is spoken in a word or two. 
A single look from the eyes, a mere pressure of the 
hand, may decide it ; or of the lips, though they can- 
not speak. We are not only pleased but turned by a 
feather. The history of a man is a calendar of straws. 
" If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter," said Pascal, 
in his brilliant way, "Antony might have kept the world." 
Trifles we should let, not plague us only, but also 
gratify us ; we should seize not their poison-bags only, 
but their honey-bags also. Yet, as Goldsmith says, 
those who place their affections at first on trifles for 
amusement, will find those trifles become at last their 
most serious concerns. Beauty and death make each 
other seem purer and lovelier, like snow and moon- 



35^ WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

light. Let your wit be your friend, your mind your 
companion, and your tongue your servant. It is a 
solemn thought with the middle-aged, that life's last busi- 
ness is begun in earnest. He who labors for mankind, 
without a care for himself, has already begun his im- 
mortality. The truths that we least wish to hear are 
those which it is most to our advantage to know. 
Those who think that money will do anything may be 
suspected of doing anything for money. A weak 
mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling 
things, but can not receive great ones. 

Honesty, energy and enterprise make men honored 
on earth, glorious in their graves and immortal in 
heaven. What is the difference between hope and 
desire ? Desire is a tree in leaf, hope is a tree in 
flower, and enjoyment is a tree in fruit. Looking up 
so high, worshiping so silently, we tramp out the hearts 
of flowers that lift their bright heads for us and die 
alone. It is easy enough to find plenty of men who 
think the world owes them a living, but hard to find a 
chap who is willing to own up that he has collected the 
debt in full. Pride is as loud a beggar as want, and a 
great deal more saucy. When you have bought one 
fine thing, you must buy ten more, that your appear- 
ance may be all of a piece ; but it is easier to suppress 
the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it. 

The fortunate circumstances of our lives are 
generally found at last to be of our own producing. 
Fortunes made in no time are like shirts made in no 
time ; it's ten to one if they hang long together. The 
best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness ; to 



GLIMPSES. 359 

an opponent, tolerance : to a friend, your heart; to your 
child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your 
mother, conduct that will make her proud of you ; to 
yourself, respect ; to all men, charity. 



f-H3*sH+-^ 



Glimpses. 

God lets us catch a glimpse now and then of some 
of the wonderful capabilities of the human mind in a 
state of development unknown to this world. A man 
in an insane asylum has been discovered who can 
read a newspaper bottom-side up or sideways as 
readily as otherwise. In fact it can be whirled around 
in front of him and he still reads any article that is 
designated. Another man, an idiot, can tell the exact 
time of the day or night, even when suddenly waked 
from a sound sleep. The wonderful musical powers 
of Blind Tom are well known. Wonderful problems 
of a scientific or moral character present themselves 
at times to our view in such a shape that we can just 
catch a glimpse of their probable solution, but the rest 
is hidden, and will only be made known when we have 
passed on beyond this cloudland into the pure sun- 
shine of God's eternal day. 

I have met some people who seemed to suppose 
that they knew everything, and they were great igno- 
ramuses; they did not know enough to know how lit- 
tle they really did know. Sir Isaac Newton said, "I 
am but a child wandering on the shore, where beats 



360 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

the deep sea, gathering here and there a shell or peb- 
ble, while the great depths are unexplored." 

I look up, — star after star beams upon me, some 
glimmering but faintly ; others through the infinite 
realms of space pour down glorious streams of radi- 
ance, fixed stars, planets, suns, worlds upon worlds, 
innumerable worlds. "How I wonder what you are," 
the little child says. The astronomer comes as he 
thinks to know. He can tell you how many miles it is 
to the moon, and what is its diameter; about its burnt- 
out volcano ; that it has no atmosphere, that it has no 
water, that it is a dead planet where no fire glows or 
winds blow, where nothing lives. A dead planet ! 
He thinks he knows about it ; he has it all mapped 
out. He thinks he knows about the sun, its atmos- 
phere, the spots upon it, the terrific storms that rush 
over its surface, whose trend is felt even here. He 
grows eloquent about planets, their belts and rings and 
satellites, and talks learnedly about gravity. Beyond 
the Solar System, he will tell you about the Great 
Bear and the Lesser, the Pleiades, and he thinks he 
knows; but how little! Ask him how old are these 
stars? Ask him whether they are inhabited? Ask . • 
him what is gravity? What moves this stellar host? 
Ask him where is the centre of the universe and what 
is its circumference. Before, behind, on the right, on 
the left, things are broken off. He cannot tell you 
where they begin. 

Let us look down. The geologist digs deep, but 
cannot strike bottom. He can go back many ages, but 
not to the beginning ; he can tell you the different 



GLIMPSES. 36I 

strata of earth until you reach fire ; but how came 
that fire there ? Whence came the sea ? He will tell 
you from the condensation of vapor. . Whence came 
the vapor? He cannot tell you, though he calls him- 
self a philosopher. 

Then as to man. The ancients had a motto, " Man 
know thyself." They spent all their life in the study, 
and found life too short. Harvey discovered the cir- 
culation of the blood, how the heart was an engine 
driving the blood through the arteries ; but did Harvey 
find out what set it going ? Bell wrote a treatise on 
the hand, one of the most elaborate ever written ; but 
can Bell tell me how I can move my fingers ? Can he 
explain the mysterious telegraphy that flashes from 
the brain to the extremities. The mechanism of the 
eye ! Who can tell how the picture is transmitted, how 
the two pictures cross each other, and make one pic- 
ture? The brain ! Who can tell about it ? There is 
something in phrenology, but who knows how much, 
how little ? Who can tell about the beginning of life, 
and how it is sustained ? You lay the body on the 
table, and with the scalpel search for the life ; but 
even as you search it is gone. What is life? We 
have not found out yet ; and what is death? 

We look around us. The smallest flower that 
blooms, who understands it ? Take the animalcule, mill- 
ions of which find their home in a drop of water, what 
naturalist understands it ? A drop of dew, a ray of 
light, heat, who understands them? Men talk learn- 
edly of affinity, what is it? What is- an atom ? A 
whole academy of scientists can be gravelled by a grain 



362 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

of sand. All the philosophers gather about a drop of 
water and they cannot get to the bottom of it. " God's 
purposes will ripen fast." That is true of some, but he 
has century plants, and you know not their glory until 
the century has passed away, and all at once the flower 
breaks forth in all its beauty, and then you understand 
the meaning of the flowerless stalk that has stood 
there so long. You must give God ages to under- 
stand him. You must wait until eternity ; the clear 
light of heaven must shine upon the Providences 
of earth before you can understand what God meant 
by the dispensations that trouble your heart now. 

What is the use, some will say, of having these 
Scriptures if you don't understand them? Do you 
understand digestion? Then what is the use of having 
bread and water? Can you fathom the depths of the 
sea? And yet you can serenely sail over it. And 
though you cannot fathom the depths of God's truth, 
you can sail over it to heaven. Perhaps you don't 
understand the compass, and why the needle points 
north and south. They explain it by saying the earth 
is a great magnet, and, like all other great magnets, has 
a north and south pole. They tell us further that 
the opposite poles of magnets attract, and that because 
of this attraction the needle, which is a magnet, points 
north and south. Does anybody understand that? I 
don't, and yet they think they have explained it when 
they tell you that. Well, if you don't understand it, 
what is the use of it? You sail by it, and the globe 
could not be circumnavigated without it. There is 



GLIMPSES. 363 

much you don't understand that is nevertheless very- 
beautiful and beneficent. 

There are people who are ready to say that no 
one can know anything of the infinite beyond, as no- 
body has been there and ever returned to tell us, and 
that it is all but dim conjecture. Somebody has been 
there and come from there. It is true, no man has 
seen God ; but the only-begotten Son has come forth 
from the bosom of the Father; and is not the God 
Man competent to speak? He descended in infinite 
love to the depths, and he has made proclamation of 
things we could not otherwise possibly have known. 
One has come from heaven and stood upon earth, and 
told men what was in that world from whence he 
came. 

Patience, then, poor weak heart! Down, ambitious 
thoughts, too proudly climbing ! Be content to be led 
in the dark ; be persuaded we shall come presently to 
fountains of everlasting satisfaction in a better land. 

It is sometimes assumed that defeat is the sign of 
God's disapproval; that success is the seal of his ap- 
proval. It is not always so. Good causes are held in 
check for centuries. The world is full of unfinished 
battles. Truths lie prostrate in the dust that by and 
by shall rise and assert their power. 

When the shower of stones began to fall upon 
him, Stephen cried, " I see the heavens opened." And 
this unveiling of divine things makes an exit from the 
world triumphant. Many a child sees visions of Jesus 
in death, of which no patriarch or sage ever dreamed. 
To the crushed and oppressed, Paradise opens above 



364 WELL-SPRINGS OP TRUTH. 

the pallet of straw, and the garret or the cellar be- 
comes " the gate of heaven." 

It cannot be that those whom I have loved have 
gone into nothingness. The garment I held has. 
slipped from my grasp. The beauty of the flesh is all 
unwoven. But that which I loved, which wore that 
garment, somewhere in God's universe keeps its life, 
its personality, its consciousness. 

Here is a book of fiction ; it becomes more and 
more involved ; the plot thickens, — I cannot under- 
stand it; I weep, I laugh, I rejoice, I am depressed; it 
seems to be all going wrong ; but by-and-by I come 
to. the denoument, and it turns out just as I would 
wish. So God moves in great circles, and we see but 
a part of his ways. 

Life, according to an Arabic proverb, consists of 
two parts — the past, a dream, and the future a hope. 
But there are times when these souls of ours get under 
the shadow of the Throne, when we can almost hear 
the music of heaven, and there falls upon us a quiet 
like the echo of an angel's song. Man is a symbol of 
eternity, imprisoned into time. 

Goodness does not only communicate favors and 
kindness — it even in some measure communicates 
itself; just as those who have been long among the 
most fragrant objects not only are delighted with the 
odor that breathes from them; some of the very fra- 
grance cleaves to and remains with them. They be- 
come fragrant themselves by staying long among 
objects that are so. 

In the depths of the sea the waters are still ; the 



GLIMPSES. 365 

heaviest grief is that borne in silence; the deepest 
love flows through the eye and touch ; the purest joy 
is unspeakable, and the most impressive preacher is 
the silent one, whose lips are closed. Obscurity and 
innocence, twin sisters, escape temptations which would 
pierce their gossamer armor, in contact with the world. 

That which is right never dies. It may be buried 
beneath the weight of corruption, only to live and 
come to the surface again. Deeds are fruits ; words 
but leaves. To write of heroic sacrifices, and to make 
them, are two different things. It is really of little 
difference who we are — it matters more what we are. 

That which in heaven is flame, on earth is smoke. 
He who best knows Christ is the best Christian. 
Earthly things must remind us of heavenly. We must 
translate the book of nature into the book of grace. 
Resignation is putting God between one's self and 
one's grief. Nothing can be love to God which does 
not shape itself into obedience. Between late and too 
late there is, thanks be to God, an inconceivable 
distance. 

An author, no less eminent than judicious, makes 
the following distinction between the words Innocence, 
Wisdom and Virtue : 

" Innocence consists in doing no harm, and occa- 
sioning no trouble to society. Wisdom consists in 
being attentive to one's true and solid interest ; in dis- 
tinguishing it from a seeming interest ; in a right 
choice and a constant adherence to it. Virtue goes 
further ; it loves the good of society, and frequently 
prefers it to its own advantages." 



2)66 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

The formula of the skeptical scientist is " force, 
matter, nature, grind." The formula of the Christian 
philosopher " God, matter, love, growth." The heart, 
though only a handful of muscle, the whole world can- 
not fill ; and when broken, only he who made it can 
mend it. Our very life is but a dream, and while we 
look around eternity is at hand. 

Don't judge a man by the house he lives in, for 
the lizard and the rat often inhabit the grandest struct- 
ures. Ruskin has truly taught us that where we find 
in creation one adjustment for simple utility we find 
twenty for beauty. 

Man is like a complicated and delicately tuned in- 
strument. His mind has many faculties — his heart 
many chords. Some human beings remind us in their 
lives of grand triumphal music ; from the hearts of 
some there seems to ascend an almost constant hymn 
of praise ; while to the worn spirits of others earth is 
filled only with the low, sad voice of humanity, as it 
moans beneath its burden of sickness, sorrow, sin and 
death. 



DRIFTWOOD. 

Did you ever stand on the banks of a river whose 
swollen tide was covered with the debris of the moun- 
tain freshet? Did you ever wonder where all the 
driftwood came from and whither it went? Thus may 
we stand upon the banks of the stream of life, and as 



DRIFTWOOD. 367 

its ever rushing tide flows past us we wonder at the 
mass of refuse and waste material borne upon its 
bosom, coming from unknown and remote regions, 
and going we cannot tell whither, even to the corners 
of the earth. 

The weaving of tapestry is done by following the 
outlines of a figure or pattern sketched on the back of 
the canvas or warp, which is stretched in a loom, by a 
workman who stands behind, placing the woolen or 
silken threads — which are wound on an instrument 
called a broach — in the proper places, blending such 
colors as please the eye and best bring out the design, 
he simply follows the outline, not being able to see the 
result of his labors unless he pass to the front of the 
stretched canvas. He, however, has a pattern to 
which he refers from time to time, seeing exactly what 
colors are wanted, and where they should be placed. 
Following this carefully, his work is sure to be suc- 
cessful and valuable ; neglecting to consult it, failure 
is certain and great waste of material. 

So life is like a canvas placed before us, to be 
filled in with good, useful and pleasant deeds. We 
seldom see the effect produced on others by our 
words and deeds, but as surely as the weaver's threads 
drawn into the meshes of the canvas, form a fabric of 
beautiful or homely design, according to the skill and 
care he displays in weaving, so must our lives present 
to others a fair or unlovely view in "proportion as we 
study or neglect to copy our pattern of pure and holy 
living. Neglecting to follow our example, — Christ — 
we weave in disobedience, unkindness, indolence and 



368 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

self love, together with many other unlovable traits of 
character. 

With many of us our life-tapestry is a sadly curi- 
ous mixture, viewing it from the right side. Here 
and there are beautiful buds of love, gentleness, obedi- 
ence, unselfishness, while abundantly intermixed are 
rank weeds of envy, hatred, disobedience, untruthful- 
ness and dishonesty. Many a blank space is seen, for 
though time passes ever, there are many moments in 
which indolence prevents our filling in with buds of 
beauty or usefulness. 

You may take a child in what you call its inno- 
cence and its sensibility, and deeming with some among 
us that all children are born good, you may assiduous- 
ly instruct in the principles of morals, and you may 
carefully seclude it from the contagion of evil example, 
and you may write upon its fresh young heart the 
benevolent affections and the holy name of God ; and 
then you may watch gradually for the development of 
nature that you have thus started and trained. Ah ! 
but you were too late in the field. You deemed that 
your inscription was the first that was written there ; 
but the enemy had been at work before you ; the heart 
had been overwritten before you had got to it. Let 
the passions play upon the opening mind, hold it up to 
the lamp of opportunity, and in hell's dark cipher you 
can trace the blurred and misshapen characters of 
crime. • 

One of the most notable of all the evil and corrupting 
influences that characterize this age is the multiplica- 
tion of bad books and the ever widening circulation of 



DRIFTWOOD. 369 

bad newspapers. The press is stronger than Hercules, 
has more hands than Briareus, and when it fairly sets 
itself to do wickedness can be as unclean as the 
Harpies. It becomes as troublesome and as loath- 
some as the plague of frogs that swarmed out of the 
Nile and came up into the houses of the Egyptians — 
cold and slimy and ugly — sparing neither prince nor 
priest nor slave. Would God some Moses and Aaron 
would come to drive them back to the ooze and mud 
where they were born ! 

Many of the great dailies — we write it with profound 
sorrow — have done what they could to make these 
vile publications respectable by imitating their 
example and filling their columns with the sicken- 
ing details of crime. And the lesser dailies and little 
country sheets follow in their wake to the best of 
their ability. Crime is paraded in its most revolting 
details, and we charge it upon them that their managers 
do not even design to do good by their minute de- 
scription of the most shameful and abominable sins. 
What wonder, then, that the conscientious and pains- 
taking parent should allow only a few good books in his 
household to the almost entire exclusion of the so 
called news papers. 

The quantity of obscene literature that goes through 
the mails is not suspected by one in a hundred. Their 
publication is a crime against domestic and social 
purity, against civil liberty, and Christian civilization, 
whose enormity is immeasurable. It is truly time to 
speak out on this subject. " A broadside of Sinai tic 

24 



37° WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

thunder " should be turned loose upon these ramparts 
and legions of darkness. 

The superstitions of various nations are most 
degrading, and seem almost incredible to us, except 
as we look about us and see how prone even the most 
enlightened of us are to dread the ill effects of some 
unlucky happenings. I think we cannot too strongly 
attack superstition, which is the disturber of society ; 
nor too highly respect genuine religion, which is the 
support of it. Superstition, that horrid incubus which 
dwelt in darkness, shunning the light, with all its 
racks, and poison-chalices, and foul sleeping-draughts, 
is passing away without return. Religion cannot pass 
away. The burning of a little straw may hide the 
stars of the sky ; but the stars are there, and will re- 
appear. Fielding says superstition renders a man a 
fool, and skepticism makes him mad. 

Why is it that sailors cling to port on a Friday, 
and loose their ships and weigh anchor on Sunday ? 
Why did the ancients build a temple to Fortune, con- 
sult oracles, and venerate white stones rather than 
black stones ? Why did our grandmothers dislike the 
assemblage of nine rooks, turn back when they met a 
dog crossing their path, and show an antipathy to 
black cats? Why does a Fijian, to propitiate his ugly 
wooden god, offer him a bakolo, the dead body of his 
brother? Why was it improper to eat the beans and 
the seeds of the lupine? What magic makes the third 
time never like the rest ? At the wicked little German 
towns where small grand-dukes improve their reve- 
nues by licensing gaming tables, you will find old gamb- 



DRIFTWOOD. 371 

lers begging the youngest in the company, often an 
English boy who has come to look about him, to take 
for them the first throw of the dice. Why so ? Why 
is a fresh hand more likely to throw the three sixes 
than an old one ? 

Among other relics preserved in the mosque of St. 
Sophia, at Constantinople, is the cradle of our Saviour, 
which, according to tradition, was brought from Beth- 
lehem, together with a sort of basin in which his 
mother washed him. 

One would hardly believe that there are many peo- 
ple who forget they have money, or that there is 
money or interest due them, and yet it is a fact. 
There lies in "the Treasury Department to-day one 
million four hundred thousand dollars of unclaimed 
interest on government bonds. The sum is getting 
larger every day. This seems strange, but it is true. 
This vast sum of money, or much of it, can be drawn 
by simply applying for it by whoever is entitled to it 
and has the registered bond on which the interest is 
due and not paid. There' are thousands of persons 
who have bought bonds, and not knowing how to get 
the interest on them, prefer to lose the same rather 
than to expose the fact that they have the bonds. 
Others have interest due them, and actually forget the 
fact, and it lies in the treasury vaults waiting for them 
to apply for it. Should one of the clerks of the bond 
division inform a person to whom interest is due of the 
fact, and the same be discovered, he would be in- 
stantly discharged. 

Our government is like that of other countries, dis- 



37 2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

honest in matters of this kind, and is always willing to 
keep that which belongs to others if it is not called for. 
Should one of its clerks be honest enough to give out 
a hint, he is discharged on the ground that it is not 
probable he would be engaged in volunteering infor- 
mation unless he received a certain percentage for his 
services, and this he has no right to do. The govern- 
ment takes the ground that the person to whom the 
interest is due should not be required to pay for the 
information; at the same time the same government 
will not itself volunteer the information. 

Josh Billings very aptly gives voice to the practical 
man's idea of an enthusiast, when he describes him as 
"'one who believes about four times as 'much as he can 
prove, and who can prove about four times as much 
as anybody believes." It is in that one-fifth part, 
which is provable, demonstrable, and which he can 
tfnake the world believe, resides the force which moves 
the world forward. The other four parts are left as 
the stock of some future enthusiast to be used in 
keeping the world agoing. 

On a certain occasion Edward Everett visited the 
composing room of the " Boston Advertiser," at a late 
hour, to read a proof of an oration which he had failed 
to see at an earlier hour. Extremely particular about 
liis style, he was altering sentences and making 
additions while the forms were waiting, which so irri- 
tated the foreman that he roared out: " Cut it short, 
Everett — confound it, cut it short. There's no time 
now for patching up bad English." 

An Oneida Indian preacher in a recent sermon 



A 



DRIFTWOOD. T)7?> 

said he was thankful that " the Creator did not give 
the Indian enough language to allow him to be profane 
without first learning English." 

The ruins of old friendships are a more melancholy 
spectacle than those of desolated palaces. They ex- 
hibit the heart that was once lighted up with joy, all 
damp and deserted, and haunted by those birds of ill- 
omen that only nestle in ruins. 

In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mis- 
takes. All the other passions do occasional good, but 
wherever pride puts in its word everything goes 
wrong, and what might be desirable to do quietly and 
innocently, it is morally dangerous to do proudly. 

Temptation is a fearful word. It indicates the be- 
ginning of a possible series of infinite evils. It is the 
ringing of an alarm, whose melancholy sounds may 
reverberate through eternity. Like the sudden, sharp 
cry of "fire !" in the night, it rouses us to instantaneous 
activity. 

It is difficult to say whether we are most in danger 
of losing a friend by asking a favor or by conferring; 
one. 

Examples are few of men ruined by giving. Men 
are heroes in spending — very cravens in what they 
give. 

It is a row of empty houses that gets its windows 
broken ; and empty heads, empty hearts and idle 
hands are sure to come to grief. 



374 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 



Shoddy. 



" The misfortune is," says Addison, "men despise 
what they may be masters of, and affect what they are 
not fit for ; they reckon themselves already possessed 
of what their genius inclined them to, and so bend all 
ambition to excel in what is out of their reach; thus 
they destroy the use of their natural talents, in the 
same manner as covetous men do their quiet and re- 
pose ; they can enjoy no satisfaction in what they have, 
because of the absurd inclination they are possessed 
with for what they have not." And this common 
tendency is not the mere desire to get unattainable 
things, nor is it only the idealization of the object pur- 
sued, at the expense of the object possessed. It is a 
resolute liking for those ambitions or attainments in 
which we are really least deserving. Thus we see in 
the whole field of human labor, from the highest point 
to the lowest, a strange misunderstanding concerning 
the true nature of one's successes and failures. A 
first-rate novelist cares nothing for his excellent stories, 
but prides himself most of all on his indifferent verse. 
A really great surgeon most dearly prizes the poor 
daubs which he fancies to be excellent paintings in oil. 
The eminent patent lawyer is sure that, if he could 
only have had time to write a history of Madagascar, 
his place beside Motley or Buckle would have been 
secure. A house carpenter of the first class meditates 
much on his appearance as an officer in the military 



SHODDY. , 375 

company of which he is a member, and privately reflects 
that his real station in life ought to be that of a great 
general. It is needless to multiply examples : every 
one knows some person whose whimsical or absurd 
ambition in some direction is the amusement of his 
neighbors ; and not a few are well aware of their own 
defects or peccadillos in this line. 

The greatest of faults is to be conscious of none. 
The surest mark of the shoddyite is egotism and self- 
assertion. Vulgarity ever asserts its good breeding; 
guilt, that it is innocent; falsehood, that it is truth; 
and weakness, that it is strong. But the keen observer 
of human nature can sift the chaff from the wheat and 
tell the sincere from the fickle. I have noticed that 
folks who have come to grief and quite failed have the 
rules how to succeed in life more at their fingers' end 
than folks who have succeeded. 

To a really great man, the petty vanities, shallow 
angers and morbid crotchets of smaller natures are 
unknown. Above all, genius gives to its possessor a 
larger, clearer vision ; eyes that look outward, not in- 
ward. That enormous Ego — the source of so many 
puny woes to lesser minds — rarely grows rampant in 
a man who is great enough to know his own littleness. 
Consequently, he is saved at once from a hundred 
vexations which dog the heels of your giant of genius — 
who is always measuring himself with Tom, Dick and 
Harry, and requiring, or fancying he requires, larger 
clothes, longer beds, and bigger hats than they. It is 
your second-rate, your merely clever man, who, ape- 
like, is always rattling at the bars of his cage, moping 



376 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

and mowing to attract attention, and eagerly holding 
out his paw for the nuts and apples of public apprecia- 
tion, which, if he does not get — why, he sits and howls! 

One tribe of these Ishmaelites is made up of high- 
flying ignoramuses, who are very mighty about the 
doctrine of a sermon — here they are as decisive as 
sledge-hammers and as certain as death. He who 
knows nothing is confident in everything ; hence they 
are bullheaded beyond measure. Every clock, and 
even the sun-dial, must be setaccording to their watches ; 
and the slightest difference from their opinion proves 
a man to be rotten at heart. Venture to argue with 
them, and their little pot boils in quick style ; ask them 
for reasons, and you might as well go to a sandpit for 
sugar. They have bottled up the sea of truth and 
carry it in their waistcoat pockets ; they have measured 
heaven's line of grace, and have tied a knot in the 
string at the exact length of electing love ; and as for 
the things which angels long to know, they have seen 
them all as boys see sights in a peep-show at our fair. 
Having sold their modesty and become wiser than 
their teachers, they ride a very high horse, and jump 
over all five-barred gates of Bible-texts which teach 
doctrines contrary to their notions. 

If we would make the pulpit in this land strong and 
true, the preacher must be a free man, as Paul was 
free, and Luther was free, and as the citizen is free, 
and the men who follow medicine and the law. The 
preachers who consent to be of the pattern churches 
prefer are not men, but things ; not flesh and blood 
with a soul to make all things sure, but wax to be 



SHODDY. 377 

moulded and adorned to the liking of those who hear 
them. The man who is not what God made him from 
the surface to the centre has no business in the pulpit. 

D'Alembert congratulated a young man very 
coldly, who brought him the solution of a problem. 
" I have done this to have a seat in the academy," said 
the young man. " Sir," answered D'Alembert, " with 
such motives you will never earn one. Science must 
be loved for its own sake, and not for the advantages 
to be derived. No other principle will enable a man 
to make true progress." He who makes a great fuss 
about doing good will do very little ; and he who 
wishes to be seen and noticed when he is doing good 
will not do it long. He who endeavors to escape from 
life's drudgery may also cease to compete for life's 
prizes. Even if by maneuver or trick he seize some of 
them, they will become but empty bubbles that have 
lost their significance. 

There are minds so habituated to intrigue and mys- 
tery in themselves, and so prone to expect it from 
others, that they will never accept of a plain reason 
for a plain fact, if it be possible to devise causes for it 
that are obscure, far-fetched, and usually not worth the 
carriage. 

There are persons whom you can always believe, 
because you know they have the habit of telling the 
truth. They do no not " color " a story, or enlarge a 
bit of news in order to make it sound fine or remark- 
able. 

There are others whom you hardly know whether 
to believe or not, because they stretch things so. A 



37$ WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

trifling incident grows in size, but not in quality, by 
passing through their mouth. They take a small fact 
or slender bit of news and pad it with added words, 
and paint it with high-colored adjectives, until it is 
largely unreal and gives a false impression. And one 
does not like to listen to folks when so much must be 
"allowed for shrinkage." A well-known writer says, 
" Trust him little who praises all ; him less who cen- 
sures all ; and him least who is indifferent about all." 

Cultivate the habit of telling the truth in little 
things as well as in great ones. Pick your words 
wisely, and use only such as rightly mean what you 
wish to say. Never " stretch " a story or a fact to make 
it seem bigger or funnier. Do this, and people will 
learn to trust you and respect you. 

In our youth we gaze only upon the outer and the 
fairer side of life's patchwork, and it appears to be a 
beautiful whole. In old age we contemplate the other 
side, and are disappointed and disgusted with its rag- 
ged seam, and its dry tags and ends. 

It is not poverty so much as pretense that harasses 
a ruined man — the struggle between a proud mind 
and an empty purse — the keeping up of a hollow 
show that must soon come to an end. Have the 
courage to appear poor, and you disarm poverty of 
its sharpest sting. 

Wealth is an expensive thing. It costs all it's 
worth. If you want to be worth a million dollars, it 
will cost you just a million dollars to get it. Broken 
friendships, intellectual starvation, loss of social enjoy- 
ment, deprivation of generous impulses, the smother- 



SHODDY. 379 

ing of manly aspirations, a limited wardrobe and a 
scanty table, a lonely home because you fear a lovely 
wife and beautiful home would be expensive, a hatred 
of the heathen, a dread of the contribution box, a 
haunting fear of the woman's aid society, a fretful 
dislike for poor people because they won't keep their 
misery out of your sight, a little sham benevolence 
that is worse than none; oh, you can be rich, young 
man, if you are willing to pay the price. 

The one difficulty in life is to be in earnest. All 
this world in the gala-day seems but a passing, unreal 
show. We dance, light-hearted, along the ways of 
existence, and nothing tells us that the earth is hollow 
to our tread. But soon some deep grief comes and 
shocks us into reality ; the solid earth rocks beneath 
our feet ; the awfulness of life meets us face to face in 
the desert. Then the value of things is seen ; then it 
is that godly sorrow produces carefulness ; then it is 
that, like Jacob, we cry, " How awful is this place! how 
solemn is this life ! This is none other but the house 
•of God, and this is the gate of heaven ! " Then it is 
that with moral earnestness we set forth, walking 
circumspectly, weighing, with a watchful and sober 
eye, all the acts and thoughts which make up life. 



380 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH, 



©U^IGSUPY. 

Perhaps the most vicious and hurtful propensity of 
the human heart is the vice of curiosity. It leads to 
the commission of many aggravating sins. Eye-gate 
and ear-gate allow the soul to see and hear so many 
things that otherwise would be passed by without con- 
tamination. 

A person who is too nice an observer of the busi- 
ness of the crowd, like one who is too curious in ob- 
serving the labor of the bees, will often be stung for 
his curiosity. The gratification of curiosity rather 
frees us from uneasiness than confers pleasure ; we 
are more pained by ignorance than delighted by in- 
struction. Curiosity is the thirst of the soul. But 
even as money is said to be the root of all evil, so 
curiosity is the mother of many sins. 

Curiosity is the spiritual drunkenness of the soul ; 
and look, as the drunkard will never be satisfied, be 
the cup never so deep, unless he see the bottom of it, 
so some curious Christians, whose souls are spread 
with the leprosy of curiosity, will never be satisfied till' 
they come to see the bottom of the most secret rea- 
sons of all God's dealings towards them ; but they are 
fools in folio who affect to know more than God would 
have them. Did not Adam's curiosity render him and 
his posterity fools in folio ? And what pleasure can 
we take to see ourselves everyday fools in print? As 
a man by gazing and prying into the body of the sun 






CURIOSITY. 381 

may grow dark and dim, and see less than he other- 
wise might, so many, by a curious prying into the 
secret reasons of God's dealings with them, come to 
grow so dark and dim, that they cannot see those 
plain reasons that God hath laid down in His word, why 
He afflicts and tries the children of men. 

What an irresistible impulse possesses all children 
and many grown people to rush to the doorway, and 
out upon the street when a band of music goes 
trumpeting by. The street parade, with its glittering 
uniforms and various sounds, calls out every idler in 
the neighborhood, and you wonder how so many peo- 
ple can find means to live, and yet have so little to do. 

Aristophanes, the comedian, said, concerning Cleon, 
that " his hands were in Petolia and his soul in Thief- 
town ;" so the hands and feet, eyes and thoughts of 
inquisitive persons are straggling about in many places 
at once. Neither the mansions of the great nor the 
cottages of the poor, nor the privy chambers of princes, 
nor the recess of the nuptial alcove, can escape the 
search of their curiosity. 

Curiosity is a desire to know why and how ; such 
as is in no living creature but man : so that man is dis- 
tinguished, not only by his reason, but also by this singu- 
lar passion, from other animals, in whom the appetite 
of food and other pleasures of sense, by predominance, 
take away the care of knowing causes, which is a lust 
of the mind, that by a perseverance of delight in the 
continual and indefatigable generation of knowledge, 
exceedeth the short vehemence of any carnal pleasure. 

Wirt says, " Seize the moment of excited curiosity 



382 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

on any subject, to solve your doubts ; for if you let it 
pass, the desire may never jre turn, and you may remain 
in ignorance." Curiosity, then, is largely a source of 
incentive or a motive for gaining knowledge. It spurs 
on the active mind to ascend to new heights, and ex- 
plore unknown regions. It adds a zest and pleasure 
to many a task that otherwise would be wearisome and 
uninteresting. Directed into a proper channel curi- 
osity is like the turbulent stream which moves a 
thousand spindles. 

Where necessity ends, curiosity begins ; and no 
sooner are we supplied with everything that nature 
can demand, than we sit down to contrive artificial 
appetites. 

Curiosity, that irksome, that tyrannizing care, 
" superfluous industry about unprofitable things, and 
their qualities," as Thomas defines it ; an itching humor 
or a kind of longing to see that which is not to be 
seen, to do that which ought not to be done, to know 
that secret which should not be known, to eat of the 
forbidden fruit. We commonly molest and tire our- 
selves about things unfit and unnecessary, as Martha 
troubled herself to little purpose. Be it in religion, 
humanity, magic, philosophy, policy, any action or 
study, 'tis a needless trouble, a mere torment. 



COVETOUSNESS. 383, 



(gOYEHtOUSNESS. 

The struggle with civilized men in this world is for 
wealth. This is called the prime good, the one thing 
needful; the great desideratum of life. So men toil 
for it ; deceive, cheat, defraud for it ; give time, 
strength, and often good health, for it. The truth is, 
the estimate put on wealth is too high. Its good, its- 
value, is overrated. It is not the best thing men can 
have. It does not confer peace of mind nor purity of 
the heart, heartfelt happiness nor contentment, nor 
home joy ; nor social blessedness, nor any of the solid 
and enduring enjoyments. Wealthy homes are often 
no happier than those of the poor and comfortable 
livers. Poverty is always an evil; but a fair supply of 
the necessaries and comforts of life is quite as apt to 
confer real peace as great wealth. 

It is not gold nor goods, therefore, that make men 
really wealthy. The best wealth is of the heart, an 
enlightened mind, a loyal conscience, pure affections. 
He is the wealthier who has the largest share of wisdom, 
virtue and love — whose heart beats with sympathies 
for his fellow men — who finds good in all seasons, all 
providences and all men. The generous man who 
pities the unfortunate ; the poor man who resists temp- 
tation ; the wise man who orders well his life ; clings 
closely to his family and friends ; the studious man, 
who seeks instruction in all things, are the truly 
wealthy men. 



* 



384 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

Greed is a sin. We firmly believe it. It is not 
right. Nobody can make it right. God hates it. By 
every law of right known to us it is unworthy of man 
as a mere citizen of this world. But as man is related 
to the world to come, it is a sin against both God and 
man. He ignores what God respects, and does a 
wrong which God will punish. Greed and what is 
highest and noblest in man are antipodal ; they are 
like water and oil — they will never mix ; they are at 
eternal war. 

O Christian! man renewed by grace, dost thou 
indeed believe that God inhabits thee with his holiness, 
and makes thee his temple? Be thou, then, a temple 
indeed, a sacred place to him. Exclude covetousness; 
make not thy Father's house a house of merchandise. 
Deem every sin a sacrilege. Let all thy thoughts 
within, like white-robed priests, move round the altar, 
and keep the fire burning. Let thy affections be 
always a cloud, filling the room, and inwrapping thy 
priest-like thoughts. Let thy hallowed desires be ever 
fanning the mercy-seat with their wings. 

Mark the careworn countenance of him who has 
wasted the best portion of his life in the acquisition of 
wealth, not that he might be enabled to relieve the 
wants of the destitute and afflicted, but that he might 
be powerful and leave a rich legacy for his children 
when he is gone. Does his wealth secure happiness ? 
Ah, no ! He has exhausted his energies in accumulat- 
ing a fortune, and received naught but vexation of 
spirit in return. He has sought for gold and found 
dross. 



COVETOUSNESS. 385 

Many a man, when he begins to accumulate wealth, 
commences at the same time to ruin his soul. Instead 
of doing more for God he does less ; and the more he 
wants of this world the less he cares for the world to 
come. Ambition makes the same mistake concerning 
fame that avarice does concerning wealth: she begins 
by accumulating power as a means to happiness, and 
she finishes by continuing to accumulate it as an end. 

Consider somewhat more deeply this covetousness. 
In the original the word is a very expressive one. It 
means the desire of having more — not of having more 
because there is not enough, but simply a craving 
after more. More when a man has not enough. More 
when he has. More, more, ever more. Give, give. 
Divide, divide. 

This desire of accumulation is the source of all our 
greatness, and all our baseness. It is at once our 
glory and our shame. It is the cause of our com- 
merce, of our navy, of our military triumphs, of our 
enormous wealth, and our marvelous inventions. And 
it is the cause of our factions and animosities, of our 
squalid pauperism, and the worse than heathen degra- 
dation of the masses of our population. 

The covetous man is like the spider. He does 
nothing but lay his wits to catch every fly, gaping only 
for a booty of gain ; so yet more in that whilst he 
makes nets for these flies, he consumeth his own 
bowels, so that which is his life is his death. And yet 
he is at least to. be pitied, because he makes himself 
miserable ; like wicked Ahab, the sight of another 
man's vineyard makes him sick ; he wants it for him- 

25 



386 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

self. He hates his neighbors as bad as he is hated by 
them, and would sell hisr best friend, if he had one, for 
a groat. He pines his body that he may damn his 
soul; and whenever disappointed of his expected gain, 
through the accursed discontent of his mind, he would 
dispatch himself, but that he is loth to cast away his 
money on a cord. 

In the siege of Cassilinum, Hannibal so reduced 
the citadel that there was a great famine. One soldier 
possessed a mouse that he might have eaten, and so 
appeased his cruel hunger, but he preferred selling it 
to a comrade for two hundred pence. He was de- 
stroyed by the famine, and did not live to enjoy his 
money, while if he had not sold the mouse, it is said 
that he might have saved his own life. 

Rich people who are covetous are like the cypress 
tree ; they may appear well, but are fruitless ; so rich 
persons have the means to be generous, yet some are 
not so ; but they should consider they are only trustees 
for what they possess, and should show their wealth to 
be more in doing good than merely in having it. They 
should not reserve their benevolence for purposes 
after they are dead; for those who give not till they 
die, show that they would not then, if they could keep 
it any longer. 

The great and learned Hippocrates wished a con- 
sultation of all the physicians in the world, that they 
might advise together upon the means how to cure 
covetousness. It is now above two thousand years 
since he had this desire. After him a thousand and a 
thousand philosophers have employed their endeavors 



COVETOUSNESS. 387 

to cure this insatiable dropsy. All of them have lost 
their labor therein ; the evil rather increases than 
declines under the multitude of remedies. There have 
been a number in former agfes sick of it; and this wide 
hospital of the world is still as full of such patients as 
ever it was. 

In Sparta it was a law that men should worship 
the gods with as little expense as possible. There are 
already enrolled on the church books of the United 
States enough such Spartans to make three thousand 
new Thermopylaes. 

Caligula, emperor of Rome, seemed to be inflamed 
with the passion for touching money. He would fre- 
quently walk upon heaps of gold, and as the pieces 
lay spread out in a large room he would roll himself 
over them naked. He forced men in their sickness to 
make him their heir, and if they recovered after mak- 
ing their wills, he poisoned them. The palace was 
made a common brothel that his revenues might be 
increased thereby. 

Can anything be more senselessly absurd than that 
the nearer we are to our journey's end, we should still 
lay in more provisions for it ? 

Hunger is allayed by eating, thirst by drinking, 
cold by putting on more clothing; but the desire for 
money is never abated by any amount of silver, gold, 
jewels or estate. However great one's income the 
desire for money is constantly crying, "More, more." 
This is a disease more incurable than the leprosy. 



388 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 



Selfishness. 

In the first place, if you want to make yourself 
miserable, be selfish. Think all the time of yourself 
and your things. Don't care about anything else. 
Have no feeling for any but yourself. Never think of 
enjoying the satisfaction of seeing others happy ; but 
rather, if you see a smiling face, be jealous lest another 
should enjoy what you have not. Envy every one who 
is better off than yourself; think unkindly towards 
them, and speak lightly of them. Be constantly 
afraid lest some one should encroach on your rights ; 
be watchful against it, and if any one comes near your 
things snap at them like a mad dog. Contend ear- 
nestly for everything that is your own, though it may 
not be worth a pin. Never yield a point. Be very 
sensitive, and take everything that is said to you in 
playfulness in the most serious manner. Be jealous 
of your friends lest they should not think enough of 
you; and if at any time they should seem to neglect 
you, put the worst construction upon their conduct. 

None but a thoroughly selfish person can be 
always unhappy. Life is so equally balanced that 
there is always as much to rejoice as to weep over, if 
we are only able — and willing — to rejoice in and for 
and through others. 

" Time and the hour run through the roughest day " — 

if we will but let it be so — if we will allow our sky to 
clear and our wounds to heal — believing in the won- 



SELFISHNESS. 389 

derful reparative powers of Nature when she is given 
free play. But these poor souls will not give her free 
play; they prefer to indulge in their grief, refusing ob- 
stinately all remedies, till they bring on a chronic dys- 
pepsia of the soul, which is often combined with a 
corresponding disease of the body. 

A man who a few years ago withheld his thousands 
which he might have given to the work of God, is to- 
day a penniless beggar with no one to pity him. His 
treasures were laid up on earth; God had the crumbs, 
the loaf he kept himself until it was mouldy, and now, 
instead of looking forward to the day of reward, and 
anticipating the welcomes and benedictions of souls 
saved through his instrumentality, he has only to look 
back upon wasted endeavors, perished possessions, 
departed wealth, blighted hopes, and joys that have 
withered to return no more. 

The man who lately devoted his vigor and strength 
to the useless race for wealth and pleasure, and vain 
ambition, and who had time for nothing else ; and 
whose vigorous manhood was devoted to trifles light 
as air, now helpless, wretched and distressed, drawing 
nigh to the grave, laments a wasted existence. Once 
he might have done great things in the cause and 
name of God ; now he is, cast aside a broken and dis- 
honored vessel, for which the Master has no use. His 
lifework is undone ; and instead of coming with his 
sheaves and rejoicing in the final harvest day, he shall 
bring before the Judge " nothing but leaves." If self- 
ishness begins with the governing classes, woe to the 
country that is governed. The evil spreads downwards, 



39° WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

and includes all classes, even the poorest. The race 
of life becomes one for mere pelf and self. Principle 
is abandoned. Honesty is a forgotten virtue. Faith 
dies out ; and society becomes a scramble for place 
and money. 

The Duke of Burgundy was waited upon by a poor 
man, a very loyal subject, who brought him a very 
large root which he had grown. He was a very poor 
man indeed, and every root he grew in his garden was 
of consequence to him ; but merely as a loyal offering 
he brought to his prince the largest his garden pro- 
duced. The prince was so pleased with the man's 
evident loyalty and affection, that he gave him a very 
large sum. The steward thought, "Well, I see this 
pays ; this man has got fifty pounds for his large root; 
I think I shall make the Duke a present." So he 
bought a horse, and he reckoned that he should 
have in return ten times as much for it as it was worth, 
and he presented it with that view ; the Duke, like a 
wise man, quietly accepted the horse, and gave the 
greedy steward nothing. That was all. So you say, 
"Well, here is a Christian man, and he gets rewarded. 
He has been giving to the poor, helping the Lord's 
Church, and see, he is saved ; the thing pays, I shall 
make a little investment." Yes ; but you see the stew- 
ard did not give the horse out of any idea of loyalty 
and kindness and love to the Duke, but out of a very 
great love to himself, and therefore had no return ; and 
if you perform deeds of charity out of the idea of get- 
ting to heaven by them, why, it is yourself you are 
feeding, it is yourself that you are clothing ; all your 



SELFISHNESS. 39 1 

virtue is not virtue, it is rank selfishness, it smells 
strong of selfhood, and Christ will never accept it; you 
will never hear him say " Thank you " for it. 

There is a great deal of open-hearted and open- 
handed selfishness in the world. Some of the most 
liberal givers in the community are thoroughly selfish. 
Selfish prodigality is by no means uncommon. There 
are those who look upon themselves as exceptionally 
generous, and who are even so counted by their fel- 
lows, who are unmistakably selfish. This is a truth 
that ought to be borne in mind when we are passing 
upon the characteristics of ourselves, or of those whom 
we have a right to judge — because of our responsibil- 
ity for their training. Selfishness is not always con- 
joined with stinginess. 

A little girl, who had been very observant of her 
parents' mode of exhibiting their charity, being asked 
what generosity was, answered, "It's giving to the poor 
all the old stuff you don't want yourself." And there 
is more truth than poetry in the definition. But that 
is not the charity that covereth a multitude of sins or 
that suffereth long and is kind. It is the other kind. 

Every one blames the fine-lady daughter and pities 
the poor drudge-mother. 

The daughter sits in the parlor, in nice clothes and 
elegantly arranged hair, dawdling over a novel, or 
chatting with companions or friends. Her mother is 
toiling in the kitchen, or fretting her soul in the vain 
attempt to reduce her pile of " mending" and at the 
same time look after a tumbling baby. 

The mother's face is worn and thin. Baby has 



39 2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

pulled her hair askew. She still wears the old dress 
that she put on in such a hurry at half-past five in the 
morning, when baby woke her from a weary sleep. 

She is tired ! She is always tired. She is tired on 
Saturday, and she is tired on Sunday ; she is tired in 
the morning, and tired in the evening ; she goes to bed 
and gets up tired. 

It is hard not to be angry with the daughter, we 
confess. She can look in her exhausted mother's face, 
and know how much work there is to be done, and 
never willingly put forth a hand to help her. Nay, 
she is going out to tea this evening, and will come to 
her mother to have her dress adjusted for the great 
occasion. She casts much of the burden of her exist- 
ence upon the too generous heart that she does not 
appreciate, and never once feels the impulse to give 
the aid of her youthful strength. 

In all our modern world there is not an uglier sight 
than this, no, not one. It is but natural to throw the 
blame of it upon the daughter. "Heartless wretch!'" 
we have heard such a girl called by indignant acquain- 
tances. 

She is to be pitied, rather. When she was a little 
child, all lovely and engaging, her mother said to her- 
self, " She shall not be the drudge I was. She shall 
not be kept out of school to do housework, as I was. 
She shall have a good time while she is young, for 
there's no knowing what her lot will be afterwards." 

And so her mother made her young life a long 
banquet of delights. Rough places were made smooth 
for her; all difficulties were removed from her path. 



SELFISHNESS. 393. 

The lesson taught her every hour for years and years 
was, that it was no great matter what other people 
suffered, if only her mother's daughter had a good 
time. 

She learned that lesson thoroughly, and a frightful 
selfishness was developed in her. 

Her eyes may fall upon these lines. If so, we tell 
her that people in general will make no allowance for 
the faults of her bringing up ! They will merely say,, 
" See what a shocking and shameful return she makes 
for her mother's indulgent and generous care." 

I have seen parents, not intentionally selfish, who,, 
when old age came upon them, grew so exacting, 
fretful, irritable, compelled such constant attendance,, 
and insisted on such incessant sacrifices, as literally to' 
take the life — or at least all that life was worth — out 
of their children, whom everybody but themselves saw 
were being " killed by inches," as the phrase is. Only 
fancy ! living till one's best friends say with bated 
breath, " If it would but come to an end " — that is, our 
life : as the only means of saving other and more 
precious lives. 

But this need not be — it ought never to be. A 
little self-control at the beginning, a steady, persistent 
recognition of the fact that the young are young, and 
we are old ; they blooming, we fading ; they going up 
the hill, and we down it — that this is God's will, to be 
accepted placidly and cheerfully, and made as little 
trouble about as possible, and we need not fear ever 
becoming very " ugly." 

We call our errors by grand names, and almost 



394 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

boast of them — " I never take care of myself;" "I can't 
be bothered with my health ;" " What does it matter 
to me if I am ill ? " are the remarks one constantly 
hears, especially from the young, just old enough to 
shirk authority and resent interference, but still seeing 
only in the dim distance that dark time which must 
come, sooner or later, when for every ill-usage it has 
received, the body avenges itself tenfold. 
% Does it not matter indeed ? — the extra labor 
thrown on a whole family when one member is ill ? the 
heartache of parents, the perplexity and distress of 
friends, the serious annoyance — to put no stronger 
word — that invalids always are in a household ? If, as 
to our would-be suicides, the law of the land, even 
when it saves them from the river half drowned or cuts 
them down half hanged, sentences them to remorseless 
punishment, should not there be found also some 
fitting condemnation for those who commit the slow 
suicide of ruined health, for no cause but their own 
gratification? 

Our infinite obligations to God do not fill our 
hearts half as much as a petty uneasiness of our own ; 
nor His infinite perfections as much as our smallest 
wants. Our selfishness is so robust and many-clutch- 
ing that, well encouraged, it easily devours all sus- 
tenance away from our poor little scruples. There is 
an ill-breeding to which, whatever our rank and nature, 
we are almost equally sensitive,- — the ill-breeding that 
comes from want of consideration for others. 

The story is told of a clergyman that, after preach- 
ing an interesting sermon on " Recognition of Friends 



Fanaticism. 395 

in Heaven," he was accosted by a hearer, who said, 
<# I liked that sermon, and now I wish you would preach 
another on the recognition of people in this world. I 
have been attending your church for three years, and 
not five persons in the congregation have so much as 
bowed to me in all that time." 



Fanaticism. 

There is a wide difference between a zealous man 
and a zealot Zeal is a very desirable quality if it is 
characterized by devotion to a laudable end. Paul 
was always zealous, and when he referred to his early 
record, described himself "concerning zeal, persecut- 
ing the church." In after days that same spirit of zeal 
was manifest in preaching the faith he had sought to 
destroy. 

There are few people in our day who have not zeal, 
but, as Paul said of his countrymen, it is "not according 
to knowledge." A man of this class may be easily 
known. He may have some talent, but he has no 
tact He can clearly perceive a desirable end and he 
scruples very little as to the means he uses to reach it 
If a thing is admitted to be right he is impatient of 
slow processes, never dreams of forbearance with any 
who do not share his convictions, and is merciless to 
those who dare to resist his will. When he has any 
truth which the world ought to receive he utters it, 
without any care as to the spirit or manner of its 



396 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

proclamation. " Speaking the truth in love " is the last 
thing that he thinks of. Such counsels might do for 
those who want to lead captive "silly women." He has 
a duty to discharge, and he will do it at all hazards. 
So he sends it forth just about .as a shell comes from 
a mortar, with a good deal of unpleasant friction in the 
atmosphere, and believing if it makes things generally 
uncomfortable, that everybody will come and "see his 
zeal for the Lord." 

As for any thought of the varieties of mental 
characteristics, such a man has too much reckless ig- 
norance to consider these for a moment. People 
ought to look at things from the right standpoint, and, 
if their training, pursuits, and associations have 
prevented this, they ought to go back to first things 
and begin life anew so as to see them as he sees 
them. As for his adapting his methods to their 
idiosyncrasies and weaknesses, it is not to be thought 
of. 

In fact, while he glories in Paul's boldness, he is 
tempted to doubt the inspiration of Paul's writings 
when he reads such passages as — " Give none offense, 
neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles, nor to the 
church of God," and when he reads that Paul "pleased 
all men in all things," and exhorted Timothy to 
"meekness" in "instructing those that oppose them- 
selves," he only regrets that Paul had not had the 
privilege of learning from himself how to deal with 
such people. 

Of course such a man has no correct idea of the 
relative magnitude of objects. The things that occupy 



FANATICISM. 397 

his mind are colossal. There are certain topics which 
he looks at through a magnifying glass. When he 
tries his hand to give a representation of spiritual 
truth he shows that he has an independence of concep- 
tion which emancipates him from all such shackles as 
proportion, distance and shade. The thing which 
engrosses him every one else should be occupied with. 
It is what the world was made for and the church re- 
deemed for, and they are wretched failures if his ideas 
are not realized. Every text of scripture has a bear- 
ing on his favorite theme, and every description of 
evil character he applies to those who do not assent in 
all things to his utterances. 

Such a man, of course, has a following ; he dra- 
goons weaker natures and they submissively do the 
special work he assigns them, while others wonder- 
ingly and pityingly inquire where their manhood is 
gone. 

"It is good to be zealously affected always in a good 
thing," but zeal which is destitute of courtesy and love 
is like the lightning which blackens and destroys. It 
has always treated with contempt all rights of con- 
science in others, but been clamorous for its own. It 
knows nothing of soul freedom. It spilt the blood of 
martyrs in other days, and its policy in our times is 
social ostracism and constant disparagement for all 
who will not bow to its behests. Nevertheless, let it be 
fully understood that only a man fit to be a slave will 
follow such a lead. True Christian manhood recog- 
nizes one and only one Example, Bishop and Master. 

I heard the other day enthusiastic praises of a sis- 



39$ WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

ter in one of those Protestant communities who are 
trying — and not unwisely — to emulate the Roman 
Catholic sisters of mercy, by absorbing into useful 
work the many waifs and strays of useless spinster- 
hood, eating their hearts out in lonely, aimless idleness 
in the midst of a struggling and suffering world. But 
this woman was not lonely. She had a father, whom 
she paid a nurse to take care of; married sisters, who 
would have been thankful for her occasional help in 
their busy, anxious homes; loving friends, to whom her 
influence and aid might often have been invaluable. 
Yet she left them, one and all, and went to spend her 
strength — not so very great — upon strangers. She 
did expend it ; for she died, and was almost canonized 
by some people ; but some others, with a simpler 
standard of holiness, might question whether this de- 
voted self-sacrifice should not be called by another 
name — self-will. 

She did the thing she wished to do, rather than what 
seemed laid before her to do ; and though it is always 
difficult to judge such cases from the outside without 
being unjust to somebody, I think it is an open ques- 
tion whether she did right or wrong. 

The same doubt arises when one hears of soldiers 
volunteering — not sent, but volunteering — on danger- 
ous expeditions, leaving young wives or helpless chil- 
dren to endure at home the agony of suspense over a 
risk which was not demanded by duty. 

Not all fanatics are recognized as such. Many 
whose professions of allegiance to the right, and 
whose reputation for common sense are of the best, 



FANATICISM. 399 

are yet fanatical in action. It has been said by some 
writer that the whisper of a beautiful woman can be 
heard farther than the loudest call of duty. 

A story is told of an old hunter in Michigan, who, 
when the country was new, got lost in the woods 
several times. He was told to buy a pocket-compass, 
which he did, and a friend explained to him its use. 
He soon got lost and lay out as usual. When found 
he was asked why he did not travel by the compass. 
He said he did not dare to. He wished to go north, 
and he tried hard' to make the thing point north, but 
'twasn't any use. "'Twould shake, shake, right round 
and point southeast every time." 

A great many people fail of the right direction in 
life for the same reason of the mishap which befell our 
Wolverine friend — they are afraid to take the Bible 
and follow just as it points. 

Mr. Moody says, "It is hard to get people to admit 
that they are sinners. I preached once in the Tombs 
in New York. I stood on an iron bridge and spoke 
to three or four hundred prisoners in their cells. 
They could hear me, but I couldn't see any of them. 
After finishing the sermon I went around from cell to 
cell to talk with the inmates. In the first were four 
men playing cards. They said that the men who 
committed the crime got clear, and they were caught 
by mistake and wrongfully condemned. The man in 
the next cell was there because he unfortunately re- 
sembled the real criminal. It was a case of error in 
indentification. The third man visited claimed to have 
been condemned because witnesses swore falsely 



400 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

against him. The fourth man had not been tried yet, 
but was sure of being acquitted when he was. I 
never found such an innocent set of men in my life." 

Fallacies are very long-lived. We overheard a 
conversation the other day in which the old delusion 
came out, as fresh as ever, "After all, it don't matter 
what a man believes if he only does right." We 
passed on our way wondering if the speaker would 
be willing to apply his principle to anything except 
religion. Does it make no difference in a man's 
business operations whether he believes in honesty or 
knavery ? Does a man worthy of the suffrage believe 
one way and vote another ? And shall it be said that 
it makes no difference in a man's character and destiny 
whether he believes in virtue, goodness and righteous- 
ness? Does it have no bearing on a man's daily life 
to believe he shall reap what he sows ? Is there no 
inspiration to right doing in a firm belief in a holy, 
just and merciful God ? It is time that the old 
fallacy which denies this should be rooted out. 
Thinking, feeling and acting are connected links in 
our being. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." 

The trouble with the skepticism of the age is that 
it is not thorough enough. It questions everything 
but its own foundations. Infidelity gains the victory, 
when it wrestles with hypocrisy or with superstition, 
but never when its antagonist is reason. In some 
sense all criminals are insane. All crimes arise from 
insane greed, frenzied passion, or maddened revenge. 
I have noticed that many who do not believe in God 
believe in everything else, even in the evil eye. 



FANATICISM. 4OI 

The fanatical fear of the " Evil Eye," is one of the 
strongest passions of an Egyptian. It was one of uni- 
versal prevalence even in the Christian world, a few 
years since, and this superstition may still be found 
amongst the European peasantry. The glance of an 
evil eye is greatly dreaded. 

Despair seizes the minds of men whose desires are 
boundless, and who see at last a limit set to their 
ambition. Alexander cried because there were no 
more kingdoms to conquer. It was the same with 
Mahmoud, the Ghiznevide, the first Mohammedan 
conqueror of India. When he felt himself dying, he 
caused all his treasures of gold and jewels to be dis- 
played before him. When he surveyed them, he wept 
like a child. "Alas!" said he, "what dangers, what 
fatigues of body and mind, have I endured for the sake 
of acquiring those treasures, and what cares in pre- 
serving them! And now I am about to die and leave 
them!" He was interred in his palace where his un- 
happy ghost was afterwards believed to wander. 

The death of Charles IX of France was a terrible 
one. He had authorized the massacre of the Hugue- 
nots on the fearful night of St. Bartholomew, and was 
haunted by its horrors during his dying moments. "I 
know not how it is," he said to his surgeon, Ambrose 
Pare, "but for the last few days I feel as in a fever. 
My mind and body are both disturbed. Every mo- 
ment, whether I am asleep or awake, visions of mur- 
dered corpses, covered with blood and hideous to the 
sight, haunt me. Oh, I wish I had spared the innocent 
and the imbecile !" He died two years after the mas- 

26 



402 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

sacre, and to the last moment the horrors of the day 
of St. Bartholomew were present without ceasing to 
his mind. 



FLATTERY. 

He does me double wrong that wounds me with the . flatteries of his 
tongue. — Shakespeare. 

Flattery is often a traffic of mutual meanness, 
where, although both parties intend deception, neither 
are deceived, since words that cost little are exchanged 
for hopes that cost less. Though flattery blossoms 
like friendship, yet there is a great difference in the 
fruit. 

The coin that is most current among mankind is 
flattery ; the only benefit of which is that by hearing 
what we are not, we may be instructed what we ought 
to be. Blinded as they are to their true character by 
self-love, every man is his own first and chiefest flat- 
terer, prepared, therefore, to welcome the flatterer from 
the outside, who only comes confirming the verdict of the 
flatterer within. Flattery is an ensnaring quality, and 
leaves very dangerous impressions. It swells a man's 
imagination, entertains his fancy, and drives him to a 
doting upon his own person. 

It is. sometimes very hard to decide which gives us 
more pleasure — to hear ourselves praised, or to hear 
our neighbors run down. Because all men are apt to 
flatter themselves, to entertain the addition of other 
men's praises is most perilous. The evil results of 



FLATTERY. 403 

contact with persistent flatterers may be seen on every 
hand, in those dispositions and characters which are 
puffed up with such an inordinate share of vanity and 
self-conceit. 

Guard the young and artless from contact vvith 
flatterers, as you would guard them from vipers. "Oh 
what a pretty child you are," often repeated in its ears, 
has proved the everlasting ruin of many an otherwise 
useful life. Flattery corrupts the soul, raises faise 
hopes, deadens the sense of duty, overthrows the judg- 
ment, and dethrones right reason. Lift your voice and 
your influence against this monstrous evil, and thus 
gain one step towards an approving conscience and a 
peaceful life. 

Goldsmith tells us : 

"For praise too dearly loved, or warmly sought, 
Enfeebles all internal strength of thought ; 
And the weak soul within itself unblest, 
Leans for all pleasure on another's breast." 

Sir Matthew Hale says if a man, whose integrity 
you do not very well know, makes you great and extra- 
ordinary professions, do not give much credit to him. 
Probably you will find that he aims at something be- 
sides kindness to you, and that, when he has served 
his turn, or been disappointed, his regard for you will 
grow cool. 

The art of flatterers is to take advantage of the 
foibles of the great, to foster their errors, and never to 
give advice which may annoy. 

Suspect men and women who affect great softness 
of manner and unruffled evenness of temper, and an 
enunciation studied, slow and deliberate. These 



404 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

things are all unnatural, and bespeak a degree of 
mental discipline into which he that has no sinister 
motive cannot submit to drill himself. The most 
successful knaves are sharp and smooth as razors 
dipped in oil. They affect the innocence of the dove 
to hide the cunning of the serpent. 

The following is Father Sheldon's satire on flat- 
terers : " The monkey was once employed to paint 
portraits. He painted to the life. He gave the ass 
his long ears ; the lion his shaggy mane ; the tiger his 
blood-thirsty appearance ; the wolf his sly, deceitful 
look. The result was, criticisms were abundant, and 
complaints loud. The fox took up the profession. He 
shortened the ears of' the ass ; gave the lion a look of 
more majesty and less terror; took away the blood- 
thirsty appearance of the tiger; and the wolf could 
hardly be distinguished from the faithful house-dog. 
The fox became popular as a painter, and the monkey 
had no employment but to paint sheep, horses and 
useful animals of that sort." 

As illustrating the universal homage paid to 
wealth, a good story comes to us of two ladies who 
met upon a recent social occasion. They had been in 
the habit of meeting upon the same occasion for 
several years and — passing on. This time they met 
and chatted most affably. Said number one to num- 
ber two: " How well you are looking, Mrs. Blank. I 
think I have never seen you looking so well." "Oh, 
yes," said lady number two, " but I think I shall be bet- 
ter looking next year, if my husband's income keeps 
on increasing. Rich ladies are always handsome." 



EVIL CRITICISM. 405 

And she spoke so laughingly that it was not until she 
had passed on that the very complimentary lady was 
fully aware of the implied rebuke. 

We sometimes think we hate flattery ; but we only 
hate the way in which we are flattered. Flattery is 
false money which would not be current, were it not 
for our vanity. 



Gvih (S^IJBIGISM. 

Dr. Kitto exhibits scandal in its true deformity, 
where he describes it as "a compound of malignity and 
simulation ; never urging an opinion with the bold 
consciousness of truth, but dealing in a monstrous 
jargon of half-sentences, conveying its ambiguities by 
emphasis ; thus confirming the evil they affect to 
deplore." 

Those persons who indulge this ignoble habit 
he characterizes as the hyenas of society, perpetu- 
ally prowling over reputations, which are their prey; 
lamenting, and at the sam«e time enjoying, the ruin they 
create. 

To hint at a fault does more mischief than speaking 
out ; for whatever is left for the imagination to finish, 
will not. fail to be overdone ; every hiatus will be more 
than filled up, and every pause more than supplied. 
There is less malice, and less mischief, too, in telling a 
man's name, than the initials of it; as a worthier person 
may be involved in the most disgraceful suspicions by 
such a dangerous ambiguity. 



406 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

A sneer is the weapon of the weak. Like other 
evil weapons, it is always cunningly ready to our 
hands, and there is more poison in the handle than in 
the point. But how many noble hearts have withered 
with its venomous stab and festered with its subtile 
malignity. 

The longer I live, the more I feel the importance of 
adhering to the rules I have laid down for myself in 
relation to such matters : 

To hear as little as possible to the prejudice of 
others. To believe nothing of the kind till I am abso- 
lutely forced to it. Never to drink into the spirit of 
one who circulates an ill report. Always to moderate, 
as far as I can, the unkindness which is expressed 
towards others. Always to believe that, if the other 
side were heard, a very different account would be 
given of the matter. Never say of another what you 
would not have him hear. Everybody is glad when 
the biter is bitten. When a man begins to find fault 
with other people, he may well be advised to look for 
evil in his own heart and life. 

Keep clear of personalities in conversation. Small 
minds occupy themselves with persons. When you 
must talk of persons, dwell on the good side. There 
are family boards where a continual criticism and 
cutting up of character go on, but it is not a pleasant 
thing to a kind heart — one does not like to dine off a 
dissecting table. 

One who seemed to live that he might stab the 
successful character, and whose words seemed to feed 
a vicious public, thus writes of those whom the world 



EVIL CRITICISM. 407 

delights to honor : " Sir Walter Scott, a toothless re- 
tailer of old wives' fables ; Brougham, an eternal 
grinder of commonplace and pretentious noise, like a 
man playing on a hurdy-gurdy; Coleridge, talking in 
a maudlin sleep an infinite deal of nothing ; Words- 
worth, stooping to extract a spiritual catsup from 
mushrooms which were little better than toad stools ; 
Peel, a plausible fox ; John Wilson Croker, an un- 
hanged hound ; Lord John Russell, a turnspit of good 
pedigree ; Lord Melbourne, a monkey ; ' these be thy 
gods, O Israel ?' Others occupied in undertakings as 
absurd as to seek to suck the moon out of the sky; 
this wind-bag yelping for liberty to the negro, and that 
other for the improvement of prisons — all sham and 
imposture together — a giant lie — which may soon go 
down into hell fire." 

We should be reluctant to think that everybody's 
talk is of necessity much of the time about his neigh- 
bors. It is a fact that a great deal of most delightful 
conversation is not about persons at all, but about na- 
ture, or books, or political changes, or the last lecture, 
or the concert that was given the other night. Still 
there is a temptation to talk about other people some- 
times, and it seems to us, that if such talk is not ma- 
licious in spirit, or unkind in tone, it is on the whole 
pardonable. But to speak with a sneer of the foibles 

of Mrs. A , and the next moment to welcome her 

to your parlor with a kiss, as if you had no friend so 
delightful ; to say " good-bye, my dear, come again 
soon," with honeyed emphasis to Miss B , and be- 
fore the rustle of her skirts is gone, to say, " Horrid 



408 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

old thing ! I'm glad that's over ;" this is to be insin- 
cere and untrue. There is, we are sorry to admit, far 
too much of this sort of easy lying in our social inter- 
course, and those who indulge in it would do well to 
remember the quotation with which we began. If we 
accustom ourselves to ungentleness or insincerity in 
our speech or thought concerning our friends, we may 
be assured that they may be doing the same with re- 
gard to us. 

There is no spirit more hurtful to its possessor 
than a suspicious spirit. " Think evil of no man," is 
the divine counsel. " Suspicions among thoughts,"' 
says Lord Bacon, " are like bats among birds ; they will 
fly in the night." Such thoughts cloud the mind, sep- 
arate friends, and ruin our enjoyment. The Italians 
say, " Suspicion dismisses fidelity." It weakens faith,, 
cools love, beclouds hope, and turns green fields into 
arid deserts. Drive away suspicion, and cultivate con- 
fidence. 

Think twice before you believe every evil story you 
hear, and think twenty times before you repeat it. 
Say to yourself, " This may not be true, or it may be 
exaggerated," unless you have proof of the veracity 
of your informant. Persons sometimes tell falsehoods,, 
they often make mistakes, and they sometimes hear 
wrong. 

It is a very easy thing to criticise another's work ; 
but much more difficult to take hold and do better 
yourself. In other words, "It is one thing to see 
that a line is crooked, and another thing to be able to 
draw a straight one." It is well before sneering at the 



EVIL CRITICISMo 409 

crooked marks made by another, to ask, " Am I sure 
that I can do better?" Sometimes we are very con- 
fident that we possess the power to do better, when 
one attempt would prove it otherwise. The wise 
person is always chary of criticising. 

When any person of really eminent virtue becomes 
the object of envy the clamor and abuse by which he 
is assailed is but the sign and accompaniment of his 
success in doing service to the public. And if he is a 
truly wise man, he will take no more notice of it than 
the moon does of the howling of the dogs. Her only 
answer to them is " to shine on." 

A man that hath no virtue in himself ever envieth 
virtue in others — for men's minds will either feed on 
their own good, or upon other's evil ; and who wanteth 
the one will prey upon the other ; and whoever is out 
of hope to attain another's virtue will seek to come at 
even hand by depressing another's fortune. Bitter- 
ness always hints of an old half-healed hurt Cyni- 
cism is the scar of sorely wounded faith ; scepticism, 
the crumbling corpse of belief, Nothing can reconcile 
envy to virtue but death. 

The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in 
a man, and never fails to see a bad one. He is the 
human owl, vigilant in darkness, and blind to light; 
mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble game. 
The cynic puts all human actions into only two classes,. 
openly bad, and secretly bad. All virtue and generosity 
and disinterestedness are merely the appearance of 
good, but selfish at the bottom. He holds that no 
man does a good thing except for profit The effect 



41 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

of his conversation upon your feelings is to chill and 
sear them ; to send you away sour and morose. His 
criticisms and inuendoes fall indiscriminately upon 
every lovely thing, like frost upon flowers,, 

Thus his eye strains out every good quality, and 
takes in only the bad. To him religion is hypocrisy, 
honesty a preparation for fraud, virtue only want of 
opportunity, and undeniable purity asceticism. The 
livelong day he will sit with sneering lip, uttering 
sharp speeches in the quietest manner, and in polished 
phrase transfixing every character which is presented. 
" His words are softer than oil, yet are they drawn 
swords." 



Gvil fo^vCyil. 

The impulse of rendering evil for evil is one of the 
strongest to be found in the human breast. But the 
indulgence of this passion soon begets a degree of 
baseness, that stops not with rendering evil to those 
who have injured us, but passes on to distress those 
who have done us no evil; nor content with this, it 
usually ends with making those unhappy who have 
most carefully sought to do us good. 

"The ear of jealousy heareth all things," says the 
wise man; frequently I believe more than is uttered, 
which makes the company of persons infected with it 
still more dangerous. Treachery fosters treachery, 
and evil produces evil of like kind. It is everywhere 
observed that a liberated slave is apt to make a merci- 






EVIL FOR EVIL. 4TT 

less master, and that boys who have been cruelly fag- 
ged at school are cruel faggers. 

He who betrays another's secret because he has 
quarrelled with him was never worthy of the name of 
friend; a breach of kindness will not justify a breach 
of trust. Of all human frailties there are none so base 
as ingratitude, none so infamous as to return evil for 
good — to debase the purest friendship extended to us 
by lifelong friends, 

"Envy," says Lord Bacon, "has no holidays." 
There cannot, perhaps, be a more lively and striking 
description of the miserable state of mind those endure 
who are tormented with this vice, A spirit of emula- 
tion has been supposed to be the source of the 
greatest improvements ; and there is no doubt but the 
warmest rivalship will produce the most excellent re- 
sults ; but it is to be feared that a perpetual state of 
contest will injure the temper so essentially that the 
mischief will hardly be counterbalanced by any other 
advantages. Those whose progress is the most rapid 
will be apt to despise their less successful competitors, 
who, in return, will feel the bitterest resentment 
against their more fortunate rivals 

When an envious man is melancholy, one may ask 
him, in the words of Bion, what evil has befallen him, 
or what good has happened to another. This last is 
the scale by which he principally measures his felicity, 
and the very smiles of his friends are so many deductions 
from his own happiness. The wants of others are the 
standard by which he sates his own enjoyments, and 



412 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

he estimates his riches, not so much by his own 
possessions as by the necessities of his neighbors. 

Anger is less reasonable and more sincere than 
envy. Anger breaks out abruptly: envy is a great 
prefacer. Anger wishes to be understood at once : 
envy is fond of remote hints and ambiguities ; but ob- 
scure as its oracles are, it never ceases to deliver them 
till they are perfectly comprehended. Anger repeats 
the same circumstances over again : envy invents new 
ones at every fresh recital. Anger gives a broken, 
vehement and interrupted narrative : envy tells a more 
consistent and more probable, though a falser, tale. 

Law-breakers always come to evil in the end. In 
Great Britain there is a law under which certain offi- 
cers mark a line on a vessel's hull to show how deep 
in the water she may be loaded. On one occasion a 
captain wanted to carry a greater load than the law 
allowed. He took a lantern and a paint-brush one 
night, and moved the regular " load-line" up several 
inches. The officers who inspected the load thought 
that it was all right, as they could trace the line along 
the edge of the water. So far the captain's trick was 
successful. He passed out of the Thames and went to 
sea bound for a foreign port. But the vessel never 
afterwards was heard from. She was overloaded, and 
so foundered in a storm. 

A young woman who served out a sentence of five 
years in the Maine state's prison found means of edu- 
cation, and, becoming thoroughly reformed, left the 
prison in appearance a lady. She was employed by a 
dry-goods firm in Portland as saleswoman, and gave 






EVIL FOR EVIL. 413 

perfect satisfaction to her employers, till one day a 
wealthy lady of the place entered the store and recog- 
nized her. Calling the proprietor aside, she told him 
that the girl had been in the state's prison. He replied 
that he knew it, but she had done her duty faithfully, 
and that they were well satisfied with her. "Well," said 
the lady, " if you keep her in your store I will neither 
trade with you myself nor suffer any of my friends to, 
if I can help it." So the proprietor, rather than lose 
his customer, called the poor girl and discharged her. 

John the Almsgiver, Bishop of Alexandria, was 
one day visited by a nobleman. In the course of con- 
versation the nobleman declared, with warmth, that he 
would never, to his dying day, forgive a certain man 
who had cruelly wronged him. Just then the bell in 
the Bishop's private chapel rang for prayers. 

Entering the chapel, the two men knelt before the 
altar. Presently the Bishop began to repeat, in a loud 
voice, the Lord's prayer, and the nobleman repeated 
each petition after him. 

"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 
Give us this day our daily bread." The bishop 
stopped abruptly. The nobleman went on alone: 
"and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those 
who trespass against us." Then, finding that he alone 
was praying, he also stopped. The bishop remained 
kneeling, but was silent. Suddenly the sense of the 
petition he had uttered rushed on the nobleman's 
mind. He was appalled at his own prayer. Silently 
he arose from his knees, went forth, and finding the 
man who had injured him, frankly forgave him. 



414 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

Two brothers had fallen out, and in the heat of his 
passion the elder struck the younger on the cheek. 
Brave as steel and quick as lightning, the younger 
raised his arm to return the blow ; but ere it fell he 
remembered how he had read that morning by his 
mother's knee these words, "When one smites thee on 
the one cheek, turn to him the other also." A simple 
child, who took Christ's words in their ordinary sense, 
he drops his arm, and turning on his brother eyes 
where tears of forgiveness had quenched the flash of 
anger, he offered the other cheek for a second blow. 
It was the other's turn to weep now, Surprised, sub- 
dued, melted, he fell on his brother's neck and kissing 
him, acknowledged his offense, and asked forgiveness. 
And there, locked in fond embrace, the two boys 
stood, a living proof that our Lord's highest and 
apparently most impracticable injunctions admit of a 
more literal obedience than any give them. 



Blasphemy. 

It is no mark of a gentleman to swear. The most 
worthless and vile, the refuse of mankind, the drunk- 
ard and prostitute, swear as well as the best dressed 
and would-be gentleman. No particular endowments 
are required to give a finish to the art of cursing. The 
basest and meanest of mankind swear with as much 
tact and skill as the most refined ; and he that wishes 
to degrade himself to the very lowest level of pollution 






BLASPHEMY. 415 

and shame should learn to be a common swearer. 
Any man has talents enough to learn to curse God, 
and imprecate perdition on himself and his fellow-men. 
Profane swearing never did any man any good. No 
man is the richer or wiser or happier for it. It helps 
no one's education or manners. It commends no one 
to any society. It is digusting to the refined; abomi- 
nable to the good; insulting to those with whom we as- 
sociate; degrading to the mind; unprofitable, needless 
and injurious to society ; and w r antonly to profane his 
name, to call his vengeance down, to curse him, and 
to invoke his vengeance, is perhaps of all offenses the 
most awful in the sight of God. 

There are men who are so in the habit of using 
profane language that it almost flows from their lips 
without malice or meaning ; and there are those who 
regard profane language as an indication of manly 
courage and gentlemanly bearing. Dr. Annesley, 
while dining at a coffee-house, ordered a glass of water 
to be sent to the gentleman in the next box, whose 
profane oaths were very annoying. He was sur- 
prised, and said he had given no such order. The 
doctor said, gravely, "I thought to cool your tongue 
after the fiery language you have been using." The 
man was offended and challenged him, but he excused 
himself on account of his cloth. Some years after he 
met the man, who apologized and thanked him for his 
reproof, which had cured him of a wicked habit. 

The habit of profane blasphemy, once fixed upon a 
man, is hard to overcome. A very estimable man of 
sixty years was prostrated with brain fever, and in his. 



41 6 WELL 7 SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

delirium shocked his friends by his blasphemous pro- 
fanity. After his recovery he was told of it, and con- 
fessed that in youth he was terribly profane. " It is 
forty years since I uttered a profane word. I supposed 
the habit was gone from me ; but the leprosy is still in 
my blood. The tiger is chained, but he is alive." 
Daily grace is the only cure. Beware of profanity in 
youth. 

The Sunday-school in Rockville was assembled for 
their monthly concert. The lesson was about swear- 
ing, and when the children had repeated their verses, 
the minister rose to talk to them. 

" I hope, dear children," he said, "that you will never 
let your lips speak profane words. But now I want to 
tell you about a kind of swearing which I heard a good 
woman speak about not long ago. She called it wooden 
swearing. It is a kind of swearing that many people 
besides children are given to when they are angry. 
Instead of giving vent to their feelings in oaths, they 
slam the doors, kick the chairs, stamp on the floor, throw 
the furniture about, and make all the noise they possi- 
bly can. ' Isn't this just the same as swearing ?' said 
she. 'It's just the same kind of feeling, exactly, only 
they do not like to say those awful words ; but they 
force the furniture to make the noise, and so I call it 
wooden swearing.' I hope, dear children, that you will 
not do any of this kind of swearing either." 

It is better to let alone wooden swearing, and all 
other kinds of swearing. 

A young man came to Poemen greatly distressed 
by temptations to blasphemy. " Do you take pleasure 



BLASPHEMY. 417 

in these thoughts?" asked the Abbott. "I hate and de- 
test them," answered the hermit. "Be of good cheer," 
said Poemen ; " if you cast them out without giving 
them consent, they cannot hurt, though they may dis- 
tress you." 

We are told that some of the ruthless ancients, not 
very justly called fathers, struck out of the Bible that 
passage, "Jesus Wept" — they thinking, as appears by 
the testimony of Epiphanius, that his weeping was a 
degradation of his character. 

Take care how you treat the Bible, the altar, the 
church. Words of contempt may easily rise to your 
lips, but they mean more than you intend them to 
mean. You throw a little pebble into the broad lake; 
you thought it would go straight down and be seen no 
more. So far you may be right, but the circles are on 
the surface, and they vibrate and widen and multiply 
and make the whole lake throb, and who can tell what 
may come out of contemptuous criticism of Jesus 
Christ and his ministry ? Understand that the blatant 
atheist who sells his atheism, and pronounces its first 
little syllable with a vicious emphasis, does not always 
see or feel at the moment the result of his blasphemies. 

Profanity and refinement are necessarily strangers 
to each other. 

To say that we have a clear conscience is to utter 
a solecism ; had we never sinned we should have had 
no conscience. 

The spirit of blasphemy is open to the contempt of 
all right thinking people. The puny arm that raises 
itself in feeble efforts to oppose God is the outward 

27 



41 8 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

sign of a weak judgment and a vicious heart. None 
but a weakling will make such a useless trial of 
strength. 

No one can hide from the judgment. A century 
ago an infidel German countess dying, gave orders 
that her grave should be covered with a solid slab of 
granite; that around should be placed square blocks 
of stone, and that the whole should be fastened to- 
gether by strong iron clamps. On the stone, by her 
order, these words were cut: "This burial-place, 
purchased to all eternity, must never be opened.'* 
Thus she defied the Almighty. But a little seed was 
sprouted under the cover, and the tiny shoot found its 
way through between two of the slabs, and grew there, 
slowly and surely, until it burst the clamps asunder, 
and lifted the immense blocks. 



Falsehood. 

Let falsehood be a stranger to thy lips ; 

Shame on the policy that first began 

To tamper with the heart to hide its thoughts ! 

And doubly shame on that inglorious tongue 

That sold its honesty and told a lie. Havard. 

Some men seem to have a constitutional inability 
to tell the simple truth. They may not mean to lie, or 
to tell an untruth, but they are careless — careless in 
hearing, careless in understanding, careless in repeat- 
ing what is said to them. These well-meaning but 
reckless people do more mischief than those who 



FALSEHOOD. 419 

intentionally foment strife by deliberate falsehood. 
There is no fire-brand like your well-meaning busy- 
body, who is continually in search of scandal, and by 
sheer habit misquotes everybody's statements. 

This carelessness is a sin of no small magnitude. 
A man's duty to God and his fellows requires him to 
be careful ; for what else were brains and common 
sense given him ? Of course that other class, the 
malignant scandalmongers who take a fiendish 
pleasure in promoting strife, who deliberately garble 
men's words and twist their sentiments, is in the 
minority, and people have a very decided opinion 
regarding them. Most men misrepresent because 
they don't seem to think that care in speaking the 
truth is a pre-eminent duty. 

The effects of this careless misrepresenting of 
others are seen everywhere. Its effect on the individual 
is to confirm him in a habit of loose, distorted and ex- 
aggerated statement, until telling the truth becomes a 
moral impossibility. No other thing causes so many 
long-standing friendships to be broken, so many dis- 
sensions in churches, so much bitterness in communi- 
ties, and so much evil everywhere. It is an abuse that 
calls for the rebuke of every honorable man — a 
rebuke that should be given not only in words when- 
ever occasion demands, but by example. The Persians 
were said to teach their youth three things : to ride, to 
draw the bow, and to speak the truth. A little more 
instruction on this latter head would do no harm to 
our "advanced civilization." 

It is a good thing to be stable-minded, for "a 



420 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." To 
be of one opinion at one time, and another soon after, 
and to be continually changing, is not wise. There 
are times when it is wisdom to change our opinions; 
when we are convinced that we are wrong, or that 
there is a better way, it would be unwise to hold to 
them ; but those changeable-minded persons, who 
advocate a thing at one time and oppose it at another 
— those people whose mind changes so often that you 
never know where to find them are not to be de- 
pended upon, and therefore do not amount to much. 

How little there is in the world of a really scrupu- 
lous reverence for truth, one may see but too many 
proofs every day. Falsehood, like poison, will gener- 
ally be rejected when administered alone ; but when it 
is blended with wholesome ingredients may be swal- 
lowed unperceived. 

All bad work is lying. It is thoroughly dishonest. 
You pay for having a work done well ; it is done badly 
and dishonestly. It may be varnished over with a fair 
show of sufficiency, but the sin is not discovered nntil 
it is too late. So long as these things continue, it is in 
vain to talk of the dignity of labor, or of the social 
value of the so-called working-man. There can be no 
dignity of labor where there is no truthfulness of work. 
Dignity does not consist in hollowness and in light- 
handedness, but in substantiality and in strength. If 
there be flimsiness and superficiality of all kinds 
apparent in the work of the present day more than in the 
work of our forefathers, whence comes it ? It is from 
eagerness and competition, and the haste to be rich. 



FALSEHOOD. 42 1 

There is a duplicity of life which is quite as bad as 
a verbal falsehood. Actions have as plain a voice as 
words. The mean man is false to his profession. He 
evades the truth that he professes to believe. He 
plays at double dealing. He wants sincerity and 
veracity. The sincere man speaks as he thinks, 
believes as he pretends to believe, acts as he professes 
to act, and performs as he promises. 

Lying is one of the most common and conventional 
of vices. It prevails in what is called " Society." Not 
at home is the fashionable mode of reply to a visitor. 
Lying is supposed to be so necessary to carry on 
human affairs that it is tacitly agreed to. One lie may 
be considered harmless, another slight, another unin- 
tended. Little lies are common. However tolerated, 
lying is more or less loathsome to every pureminded 
man or woman. " Lies," says Ruskin, " may be light 
and accidental, but they are an ugly soot from the 
smoke of the pit, and it is better that our hearts should 
be swept clean of them, without our care as to which 
is largest or blackest." 

" Lying abroad for the benefit of one's country," 
used to be the maxim of the diplomatist. Yet a man 
should care more for his word than for his life. When 
Regulus was sent by the Carthaginians, whose prisoner 
he was, to Rome, with a convoy of ambassadors to sue 
for peace, it was under the condition that he should 
return to his prison if peace were not effected. He 
took the oath, and swore that he would come back. 

When he appeared at Rome he urged the senators 
to persevere in the war, and not to agree to the 



422 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

exchange of prisoners. That involved his return to 
captivity at Carthage. The senators, and even the 
chief priest, held that as his oath had been wrested 
from him by force, he was not bound to go. " Have 
you resolved to dishonor me ? " asked Regulus. " I 
am not ignorant that death and tortures are preparing 
for me ; but what are these to the shame of an infa- 
mous action or the wounds of a guilty mind? Slave as 
I am to Carthage, I have still the spirit of a Roman. 
I have sworn to return. It is my duty to go. Let the 
gods take care of the rest." Regulus returned to 
Carthage, and died under torture. 

Speaking of the prevalence of false actions, coupled 
with pretended repentance, an author thus speaks of 
its utter falsehood : 

"There are hoary-headed rascals who have never 
lost their power to express their feelings through their 
lachrymal gland. They secrete tears with as much facili- 
ty as they secrete other people's money. Crying is as 
easy as lying. One of the most incorrigibly treacherous 
and untruthful men I ever heard of is periodically 
overtaken by a penitential boohoo. The worst of 
men have the best of feelings." 

Beware of exaggeration, watch your words, and 
speak just the truth. Exaggeration is the plantlet, 
falsehood the full-grown tree. Do not let us lie at all. 
Do not think of one falsehood as harmless, and another 
as slight, and another as unintended. Cast them all 
aside. It is more from carelessness about the truth than 
from intentional lying that there is so much falsehood in 
the world. The more weakness, the more falsehood ; 



FALSEHOOD. 423 

strength goes straight. Every cannon ball that has in 
it holes or hollows goes crooked. Weaklings must lie. 

God is the author of truth; the devil is the father 
of lies. If the telling of a truth shall endanger thy 
life, the Author of truth will protect thee from the 
danger, or reward thee for thy damage. If the telling 
of a lie will secure thy life, the father of lies will beguile 
thee of thy gains, or traduce the security. Better by 
losing of a life to save it, than by saving of a life to 
lose it. However, better thou perish than the truth. 

Those whose minds cannot grasp political sagacity 
substitute dissimulation for prudence. He who prac- 
tices concealment deprives himself of a most important 
instrument of action, namely, confidence. 

The following words of the wise man may be read 
with profit in this connection : " The words of his mouth 
were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart; 
his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn 
swords. These six things doth the Lord hate, yea, 
seven are an abomination unto him : A proud look, a 
lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an 
heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be 
swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speak- 
eth lies, and him that soweth discord among brethren. 
The words of a tale-bearer are as wounds, and they 
go down into the innermost parts of the belly." 

Much food for thought is found in the following re- 
flections upon falsehood : 

Falsehood, like a drawing in perspective, will not 
bear to be examined in every point of view, because it 
is a good imitation of truth, as a perspective is of the 



424 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

reality. Falsehood and fraud shoot up in every soil, 
the product of all climes. Round dealing is the honor 
of man's nature ; and a mixture of falsehood is like 
alloy in gold and silver, which may make the metal 
work the better, but it embaseth it. A liar would be 
brave toward God, while he is a coward toward men ; 
for a lie faces God and skrinks from man. No false- 
hood can endure touch of celestial temper but returns 
of force to its own likeness. Figures themselves, in 
their symmetrical and inexorable order, have their 
mistakes like words and speeches : An hour of pleas- 
ure and an hour of pain are alike, only on the dial, in 
their numerical arrangement. Outside the dial they 
lie sixty times. Somebody tried to excuse a liar to 
Dr. Johnson, saying, " You must not believe more 
than half what he says." " Ay," replied the doctor, 
"but which half?" 



Nero was not developed in a day. When the first 
death-warrant was brought to him to sign he said he 
wished he had never learned to write. This was the 
speech of him who finally so grew in wickedness and 
indifference to blood and crime that the groans and 
cries of the Christians, as they were thrown into the 
dens of wild beasts, became his sweetest music. So 
with Commodus, that rival of Caligula and Nero in 
crime and cruelty. So, also, Barere, whom Macaulay 
describes as one of the most ruthless actors in the 



CRUELTY. 425 

French Revolution, as one who had been a mild, 
generous, humane man in early life, but who in time,, 
when he had once tasted blood, came to like it so well 
that cruelty became with him a habit, then a passion, 
then a madness. 

I always distrust a boy who is wantonly cruel to 
animals. They know well when they are unkindly 
treated, and soon learn to distinguish friends from 
foes. Birds are equally sagacious. From one of the 
nests in our orchard one egg was taken to help make 
up a boy's collection in natural history. The mother 
king-bird was very much angered when her remaining 
eggs were hatched. A dozen times every day, or 
every time the boy came near the house or her tree, 
she flew down and picked his hat, or would sweep 
close to his eyes, so that we were indeed afraid that 
she would pick them out. After a while she left, but 
soon returned to hatch another brood, and again her 
warfare began on the boy. All through that season- 
she never forgot ; aud what seemed strange to us, al- 
though other boys of the same size and age came to 
play in the grounds, she always knew her boy. Birds, 
fishes, even frogs, can all be tamed by kindness. He 
is a pitiful coward who injures those helpless creatures. 

The reckless cruelty with which many people cut 
and slash the already wounded feelings of their fellow 
creatures, thereby giving them their death stab, is, 
equal to the French surgeon in the following story : 

Sir Astley Cooper, on visiting Paris, was asked by 
the surgeon-in-chief of the empire how many times he 
had performed a certain very difficult operation. Sir 



426 WELlL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

Astley answered that he had performed the operation 
but thirteen times. 

" Ah, but monsieur," said the Frenchman, " I have 
done him one hundred and sixty times." 

Sir Astley was amazed. The curious Frenchman, 
looking at the Englishman's blank face, asked, "And 
how many times did you save his life ? " Very modestly 
the great surgeon answered, "I saved eleven out of the 
thirteen." 

It was his turn to question : " And how many did 
you save out of the one hundred and sixty times?" 

" Ah, Monsieur," replied the Frenchman, "I lose 
dem all, but de operation was very brilliant. 

The place where we least expect a cruel action 
is sometimes the one where it is surest to confront us. 
Nor is it necessary to be intentional on the actor's 
part. Many of the most cruel actions are the result 
only of heedlessness ; or a little childish vanity to dis- 
play one's wit; or the pride of learning, the elation of 
success, or the awkward endeavor to lend a helping 
Land. There is a place for everything, and everything 
to its place. 

There was a poor woman who had one child, the 
joy of her heart, the one ewe-lamb of her household. 
She worked for it early and late. But there came a 
time when one day it sickened. She watched it by 
day and carried it in her arms by night. But she 
could not keep the little heart beating or the body 
warm ; so it was taken away and laid in the cold 
ground. She felt puzzled, crushed. It was a bright 
morning, the church-bells were ringing, and she 



CRUELTY. 427 

thought, "I will go and hear what the preacher has to 
say." She crept in after the service had commenced 
and took a retired seat. The organ was playing a 
soft, low tune: the hymn was soothing — some of our 
music is still devotional. The clergyman arose and 
announced his text.. She lifted her veil and raised her 
eager, trembling face towards him. Did he tell her 
that not a sparrow falleth to the ground without our 
Father in heaven, or did he tell how that heavenly 
Father pitieth his children, and gave his only begotten 
Son for our sins and sorrows ? No, he told her about 
Louis Napoleon! She waited till the congregation 
had passed out. There were among them happy 
mothers, leading dear little children. She grasped the 
gate-post at the side of the church door in the weak- 
ness of despair and said, There is no God. 

Dog won't eat dog, but men will eat each other 
up like cannibals, and boast of it too. There are 
thousands in this world who fly like vultures to feed 
on a tradesman or a merchant as soon as ever he gets 
into trouble. Where the carcass is, thither will the 
eagles be gathered together. Instead of a little help, 
they give the sinking man a great deal of cruelty, and 
cry, "Serves him right." All the world will beat the 
man whom fortune buffets. If providence smites him, 
all men's whips begin to crack. The dog is drowning, 
and therefore all his friends empty their buckets over 
him. The tree has fallen, and everybody runs for his 
hatchet. The house is on fire, and all the neighbors 
warm themselves. The man has ill luck, therefore his 
friends give him ill usage ; he has tumbled into the 



428 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

road, and they drive their carts over him ; he is down, 
and selfishness cries, " Let him be kept down, then 
there will be the more room for those who are up." 

One of the ill effects of cruelty is that it makes the 
bystanders cruel. How hard the English people 
grew in the time of Henry Eighth and Bloody Mary. 
Cruelty, like every other vice, requires no motive out- 
side of itself; it only requires opportunity. 

The cruelty done to children by some parents, as 
well as by teachers, is indescribable. Children are 
held to be of the same mental nature, of the same 
temperament, of the same adaptability to learn, as 
their parents and teachers. Yet the boy who cannot 
learn his lessons as quickly as another is thrashed, or 
he is degraded in some way. Grown people forget 
the intense misery to which children are thus exposed. 
The child's horizon is so limited that he sees no 
remedy to his woes, and his sorrow absorbs his whole 
little being. 

What an enormous amount of cruelty is perpe- 
trated upon dumb animals — upon birds, upon beasts, 
upon horses, upon all that lives. The Roman gladia- 
tors have passed away, but the Spanish bull-fights re- 
main. As the Roman ladies delighted to see the 
gladiators bleed and die in the public amphitheater, so 
the Spanish ladies clap their hands in exultation at 
spectacles from which English warriors sicken and 
turn away. "It must be owned," said Qabellero, "and 
we own it with sorrow, that in Spain there is very little 
compassion shown to animals among the men and 



CRUELTY. 429 

women ; and among the lower classes there is none at 
all." 

What a history of cruel actions our Anglo-Saxon 
race has made for itself. The furies of the under 
world, as portrayed by savage nations, may be passed 
over with lightness and covered from sight by the 
mantle of charity; but the fiendish pursuits of the 
English-speaking race, possessing a knowledge of the 
Prince of Peace, and owing its great advancement in 
civilization to his spirit and teachings, is beyond a 
thinking man's comprehension. 

The most atrocious crimes have been perpetrated 
in the name of civilization, and the very principles of 
the Gospel which they professed to carry to the 
heathen lands they invaded, have all been sacrificed, 
and the sacred banner trailed in the dust. 

The blood of the Hindoo robed in his garments of 
caste, clothed with self-righteousness and loaded with 
his religious ceremonies, though he be, yet cries to 
heaven for vengeance. Poor, poverty-stricken, famine- 
parched and opium-cursed India, thy wrongs are more 
than the sands of the seashore, and darker than the 
gloom of thy jungles, and it is but an evidence of the 
sure power of the great hand that never grows 
palsied, and in whose hollow we are all safely held, 
that thine oppressors are scourged and heart-sick 
even in their victory. 

The cry to heaven from the friends and kinsmen of 
four millions of murdered people in China, cruelly 
slaughtered that the lust for gain of the English and 
American traders might be satisfied is but another link 



430 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

in the chain that is being welded by the ages; and 
with that the savage attack upon a Christian people in 
South Africa, whose only crime was that they had 
valuable lands and goods that the Anglo-Saxon 
coveted. 

Time would fail me to write all the grievous and 
cruel horrors of the English race. They seem mon- 
strous even beside those set to the account of the 
Spaniards in their early conquests of the New World. 

But when I pass to notice our own fair and loved 
land, and think of the stains and foul blotches upon 
our own fair fame, my hand is stricken with palsy, and 
my heart almost ceases to beat. My face blanches 
with fear. We have revelled in cruelty and we have 
said to war, thou art our kinsman, and to rapine thou 
shalt be our bedfellow. We have made the blood of 
human beings to flow as a river, and the vultures of the 
air and beasts of prey have fattened in our track. The 
red men have faded from before our approach, as the 
light fades before approaching darkness, and our con- 
tact with them has produced the withering curse that 
is felt when the simoom sweeps the deserts of Arabia. 

Says an Indian chief, "This glorious land, running 
so wild with rivers, and blooming back the Great 
Spirit's smile in such wealth of flowers, once belonged 
to the red man, and of most of it he has been shame- 
lessly robbed. If those of our race who have been 
slain by the white man, should spring up from the sod 
as trees, there would be one broad moaning forest 
from the great river to the sea. Those of us who 



REVENGE. 431 

have been spared are sneered at, despised, enslaved 
and spit upon as dogs." 

Nor does our crime end with the red man. We 
forced the Celestial empire to open her doors and 
allow her sons to come to our shores, after the cruel 
slaughter of more than four millions of people, and 
now we hound the poor creatures to death, and fail to 
afford them protection from the cruel rabble of a lazy 
and profligate class who come to us from another 
part of the globe. A patient, educated, honest and 
industrious people are allowed to fall victims to a 
cruel, lazy, ignorant and vicious pack of human vam- 
pires, the offscouring, the ragtag and the dregs of the 
Old World! 



Revenge. 

" Revenge at first, though sweet, bitter ere long back on itself recoils." 

The spirit of revenge is the most demoralizing and 
degrading of all the passions to which the human 
heart is subject. That man who allows it to take pos- 
session of his heart and control his actions harbors a 
monster of the most pitiless and tyrannical nature. It 
absorbs all the greenness of his soul, it embitters his 
life and drowns his happiness. His heart becomes 
the seat of such fierce and contending emotions that 
his live is burned out like a furnace, and his soul is 
blasted as a tropical garden after the simoom has 
passed over it. His eyes become bloodshot, his 
features wear a pinched and ferocious aspect, his ears 



43 2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

are deaf to the cries of mercy, while he suffers all the 
pangs of a hell upon earth. They talk about revenge 
being sweet, but the common experience of all who 
have glutted themselves at this feast is, that it is a most 
fearful bitter-sweet ! Ask the outlaw, roaming the 
mountain wild, startled at the chirp of a bird and turn- 
ing pale at his own shadow, if it is sweet ! Ask the poor 
wretch who is about to pay the penalty for gratifying 
this passion upon the gallows, and you need not wait 
for the answer before deciding. Ah, no ! How differ- 
ent from that One, of whom it is said, However 
much he was persecuted he loved his persecutors none 
the less. 

If a person be passionate, and give you ill lan- 
guage, rather pity him than be moved to anger. You 
will find that silence, or very gentle words, are the 
most exquisite revenge for reproaches ; they will either 
cure the distemper in the angry man and make him 
sorry for his passion, or they will be a severe reproof 
and punishment to him. But, at any rate, they will 
preserve your innocence, give you the deserved repu- 
tation of wisdom and moderation, and keep up the 
serenity and composure of your mind. Passion and 
anger make a man unfit for everything that becomes 
him as a man or as a Christian 

Job said, " Oh, that mine adversary had written a 
book !" It seems almost impossible that human nature 
had in that day degenerated into the weakness of 
writing books as a matter of spite. But that many 
books are to-day produced from such low motives is a 
well-known fact. 



REVENGE. 433 

Revenge is a fever in our own blood, to be cured 
only by letting the blood of another ; but the remedy 
too often produces a relapse, which is remorse — a ma- 
lady far more dreadful than the first disease, because it 
is incurable. A man that studieth revenge keepeth his 
own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and 
do well. Revenge is a debt, in the paying of which 
the greatest knave is honest and sincere, and, so far 
as he is able, punctual. There are some professed 
Christians who would gladly burn their enemies, but 
yet forgive them merely because it is heaping coals of 
fire on their heads. Diogenes being asked by what 
means a man might revenge himself upon his enemies, 
replied, " By becoming himself a good and an honest 
man." 

A Christian told Sisoes, the Theban, of his inten- 
tion to revenge a wrong done him. He advised him 
against such a course, but to leave vengeance to God. 
"I will not; I cannot," said the man. Then they 
knelt together in prayer, and Sisoes prayed, " O God, 
take, we pray thee, no more concern about our affairs ; 
be no longer our protector; we are going henceforth 
to manage for ourselves, avenge ourselves, and do all 
the rest that thou hast hitherto done for us ! " The 
man became ashamed of himself, and abandoned his 
intention. Revenge is an act of passion ; vengeance, 
of justice; injuries are revenged, crimes are avenged. 
The best sort of revenge is not to be like him who did 
the injury. Revenge is a cruel word ; manhood, some 
call it; but it is rather doghood. The manlier any 
man is, the milder and more merciful. 

28 



434 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 



©he Social Sy^ahw. 

A correspondent of the Baltimore " Sun," writing- 
from California, says: "A cure for wife- whipping was 
authorized by the last legislature of Nevada. The 
authorities of Austin, a mining town in that state, have 
erected a whipping-post to punish summarily wretches 
who abuse their wives by blows. We wish it were prac- 
tical to apply appropriate correction to the no less un- 
manly tyranny of unfeeling exaction and cruel words 
by which too many husbands keep their wives in never- 
ending torment. If man had the brains he boasts, he 
would speak ever kindly to the mother of his house- 
hold, if it were only for selfish motives." 

Make your wife happy by tender and affectionate 
treatment, and you will make your home a paradise 
more precious than gold and costly mansions. We 
admire the Hindoo parable (and believe its instruction) 
that describes a woman at the gates of Heaven pray- 
ing that her naughty husband might be admitted. 
" He was ever kind and true to me, and if you would 
make me happy, I must share with my husband." 
Instantly the portals opened and the angels bid him 
enter : " Because of thy wife's prayer thy sins are for- 
given. Who live in harmony on earth, in Heaven are 
not divided." 

In a country of the East the bride and the bride- 
groom eat a quince together to sweeten their breath. 
What a pity that all brides and grooms could not ea.t 



THE SOCIAL TYRANT. 435 

some sort of fruit whose fragrance would remain to 
make them sweet-voiced and sweet-tempered all their 
lives. What a pity that all the newly-wedded could 
not remember that from the apples of discord is 
expressed the vinegar of hate, while from the sweet- 
tempered grapes of kindness is distilled the wine of 
perpetual bliss. Look at that man who has just shut 
his gate with a bang, and is scraping his feet at the 
door. What a pity he could not scrape his heart, too, 
before he opens the door. There is as much dirt and 
defilement on his heart as on his boots, and the effects 
will be far more serious. 

The selfish, sordid, cross, ill-tempered, pitiful little 
soul. His devoted wife dare not ask him for a dollar. 
She would rather have a tooth pulled any time. He is 
always grumbling. He is a chronic growler. He 
thinks the world was made for him, and wonders it 
was not made bigger on his account. He is like an 
old he-bear that goes snarling after the mother-bear, 
and if she chance to drop the little cub that she is tug- 
ging along in her mouth, he gives the toiling creature 
a grim and ugly bite. 

I saw just such an old bruin near Salt Lake once. 
A husband and wife emerged from the car. She was 
loaded down with the baggage and his overcoat, and 
he was bustling along, hurrying her up, lest she fail to 
catch the train. I wanted to interview that man for 
about two minutes. 

There is in the countries of the East a species of 
black ant that suddenly attack articles of furniture. 
The work is insidious and unseen. Externally all 



43 ^ WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

seems right, until suddenly the whole thing collapses 
in a cloud of dust. So it is where discord and harsh- 
ness exist in domestic life. It will eat out the very 
life of home. Heaven is transformed into hell. The 
angelhood of earth is exchanged for demoniacal sor- 
row and sin. It always takes an angel to make a 
devil. That which is most beautiful is made most 
hideous by unworthy transition. 

If women's devotedness to men in any relation of 
life teaches the latter to be selfish, lazy, exacting, im- 
perious, the act is not a merit but a sin, and causes 
their beloved ones to sin. Therefore, if a mother by 
overweening indulgence helps her son to become a 
thoughtless scapegrace; if a wife by cowardly sub- 
serviency converts her husband into a selfish brute; 
even if a daughter — sets up a weak, luxurious, un- 
principled father as the idol of her life, and expects 
everybody to bow down and worship him — all these 
foolish women have condoned sin, and called vice 
virtue; have left the truth, and believed, or pretended 
to believe, a lie. 

If a man is selfish and self-willed, intolerant and 
unsympathizing ; if he has no respect for the judgment 
of other men, and no disposition to sacrifice his own 
convenience and inclination to theirs ; if he is ostenta- 
tious and fussy in his very kindness and self-abnega- 
tion; he ought not to wonder that he provokes im- 
patience and irritation. 

I have spoken of tyranny; there is nothing so 
absolute, as the tyranny of weakness. Sometimes a 
really good man will suffer himself to be so victimized 



THE SOCIAL TYRANT. 437 

by a nervous, silly, selfish wife, that he dare not call 
his soul his own. By a thousand underhand ways, 
she succeeds in alienating him from his own family — 
breaking his natural ties, hindering his most sacred 
duties; putting a stop to his honest work in the world 
— his rightful influence therein, and all the pleasures 
that belong thereto. And these being, to a man, so 
much wider than any woman's, the loss is the greater, 
the pain the sharper. 

One can imagine a large-minded, honorably ambi- 
tious man actually writhing under the sacrifices forced 
from him by a wife feeble in every way — who destroys 
not merely his happiness, but his good reputation. 
Since, when it is seen that her merest whims are held 
by him of paramount importance — that her silly, selfish 
yes or no is to decide every action of his life, do not 
his friends laugh at him behind his back, even though 
before his face they may keep up a decorous gravity? 
"Poor fellow! with such a goose for his wife!" Yet 
the pity is akin to contempt ; and something more than 
contempt is felt — especially by his mother, sisters, or 
critical female friends — towards that wife who exacts 
from him the renunciation of all his duties, except 
those towards herself; in plain English, " makes a fool 
of him," because in his devotion he has offered every- 
thing to her, and she has meanly accepted the sacri- 
fice. 

He ought never to have made it. He ought to 
have given her care, tenderness, affection — all that 
man should give to woman, and strength to weakness; 
but there it should have ended. No wife has a right 



43^ WEKL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

to claim the husband's whole life, its honorable toil, its 
lawful enjoyments. If she cannot share, she should 
learn at least not to stand in the way of either. And 
the man who submits to be so tyrannized over, as 
weak women in their small way can tyrannize, with 
that " continual dropping that weareth away the stone," 
deserves all he gets ; his friends' covert smiles, his 
enemies' unconcealed sneer. 

The father of Frederick the Great, King of Prus- 
sia, was such a tyrannical man towards his children, 
that at one time he flew into a rage, beat his. son Fred- 
erick with his cane, because he persisted in playing upon 
his flute against the orders of his father. On another 
occasion, the king, in a great rage, threw heavy earthen 
plates at the heads of his son and daughter while they 
sat at dinner, and their lives were saved only by their 
dexterity, gained by long practice in similar encoun- 
ters, in dodging the missiles. On another occasion, 
after months of the vilest persecution and degradation 
of both son and daughter, the king threw the latter 
into prison, and gave out his intention of putting to 
death her brother. 

Miss Mulock speaks of the evil effects of the tyran- 
nical actions of father and sons, as follows : " These 
girls, accustomed to be considered inferior animals, 
who must get their own way by stratagem, grow up 
into those designing young ladies who owe their power 
over men to first flattering and then deceiving them. 

" But what a future for the new generation ! How 
many unhappy girls have paid dearly for the early 
upbringing of their young husbands, who, the first 



THE SOCIAL TYRANT. 439 

glamour of love passed, treat their wives as they were 
allowed to treat their sisters, and as they saw their 
fathers treat their mothers, carelessly, disrespectfully, 
with a total want of that considerate tenderness which 
is worth all the passionate love in the world. This — 
though they may pass muster outside as excellent hus- 
bands, never doing anything really bad, and possess- 
ing many good and attractive qualities, yet contriving 
somehow quietly to break the poor womanly heart, or 
harden it into that passive acceptance of pain which is 
more fatal to married happiness than even temporary 
estrangement. Anger itself is a safer thing than 
stolid, hopeless indifference." 

The waste of time, the waste of strength, and the 
waste of health which women accept on account of 
fashion is appalling. The shoes of women have pegs 
for heels half-way under the foot, on which they walk 
with a tottering, hobbling gait, like Chinese women. 
Gaudy jewelry, gewgaws and trinkets, in the way, vul- 
gar, unladylike, are worn upon the street and at 
church ; bangs, deforming the features and reproducing 
the ape-like expression the Darwinian attributes to our 
ancestors ; powder for the face, hot irons for the hair, 
cosmetics for the skin — all alike are wicked and 
silly, nay absurd and repulsive to all sensible men. 
Frills, fringes, cords, straps, buttons, pull-backs and 
flounces, supposed to be ornamental, but which have 
no other use, burden and deform even our young girls. 
If the rising generation is to be healthy, there must be 
a. return to simpler as well as more becoming styles. 
We need artists who can devise simple and beautiful 



44-0 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

dresses which shall secure to the wearer the free and 
untrammeled use of the whole body. 

Our home joys are the most delightful earth affords. 
And the joy of parents in their children is the most 
holy joy of humanity. It makes their hearts pure and 
good ; it lifts men up to their Father in heaven. But 
what must be the despair and torment of that father 
or mother whose selfish lives have only resulted in 
estranging the hearts of their children from home, from 
relatives and from God, — whose boast, perhaps, is 
that they can make warm friends and enjoy the 
approval of their associates everywhere else but at 
home. Their hearts grow cold towards those whom 
the ties of nature would bind most closely to them. 
Their parents, though doting and idolizing them, yet 
by their tyrannical manner have driven them from the 
sacred limits of a home, that to their young minds is 
the darkest place upon earth. 

What a unique and meaning expression was that of 
an Irish girl in giving testimony against an individual 
in a court of justice the other day. " Arrah, sir," said 
she, "I'm sure he never made his mother smile." 
There is a biography of unkindness in that short and 
simple sentence. Says a lady writer : 

" I object on purely selfish grounds to accepting 
invitations from friends to visit them in their homes 
for any length of time. In the long run I pay pretty 
dearly for their hospitality — that is, in most cases. 
Though when at home I hire my dressmaking done 
and have a maid to wash the dishes, I have been in a 



THE SOCIAL TYRANT. 44 1 

manner compelled to do much of this kind of work in 
the houses of my friends. Not that I am unwilling to 
make myself agreeable and useful to those I visit, but 
the consciousness of being imposed upon impairs my 
self-respect. 

" Not long since I visited by special request a family 
in which one of its members was at the point of death, 
that I might aid in performing the last sad offices, and 
though there was abundance of help in the house, I 
was left to do the dish-washing. The water was hard 
and the rest didn't care to have chapped hands in cold 
weather. 

"Again, I have visited at houses where, although i 
was little better than an invalid, my services were so 
constantly demanded, either by hint or outspoken 
requests, that I really worked harder than I was accus- 
tomed to do at home, and when my visit was ended, I 
went home too tired and ill to do anything but keep 
as still as possible. 

" In the majority of cases it is almost impossible for 
a guest to refuse a request made by her hostess, a 
request that is courteous in form if not in spirit. It is 
hard for her not to feel that she must do what she 
seems expected to do, even when the action involves 
a greater personal sacrifice than it is just to herself to 
make. And so it seems to me that we ought to use 
some care in regard to what we ask of our guests. If 
we cannot dispense with their services when they are 
with us, why ask them at all ? Why decoy them from 
home comfort and ease to share our burdens? No 



44 2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

hostess has any right to make a waiting-maid of her 
guest. This is a side of the question which is too sel- 
dom considered." 



. I^EG^iiEss or^ Fearless. 

Every one who heedlessly or unnecessarily, for 
bravado or through thoughtlessness, or even from mis- 
taken pious zeal, goes in the way of infection, or helps 
in' the spread of it, commits a crime against society, 
which society cannot too strongly protect itself from. 

When I see rabid religionists carrying handfuls of 
tracts into reeking, typhus-doomed cottages, where 
they ought first to have carried food and clothes, or, 
better still, have leveled them with the ground and 
built up in their stead wholesome dwellings; when I 
hear clergymen with young families, and going daily 
into other families and schools, protest that it is " their 
duty " to enter infected houses in order to administer 
spiritual consolation to people dying of small-pox or 
scarlet-fever, I look upon them much as I would upon 
a man who thought it "his duty" to carry a lighted 
candle into a powder-house. 

Nothing may happen; but if anything does happen, 
what of him who caused the disaster by his fatal folly 
— misnamed faith ? As if " salvation " did not mean 
a saving from sin rather than from punishment; and, 
therefore, though men's souls may be in our hands 
during life, they must be left solely in God's when 



RECKLESS OR FEARLESS. 443 

death comes — and after. These so-called .religious 
persons are apparently much more bent upon doing 
their own will in their own way than the Master's in 
his way. For the will of God, so far as we can trace 
it through his manifestation of himself in his Son, 
seems to be the prevention and cure of not only moral 
but physical evil by every possible means, prior to 
its total extinction. 

Speaking of the insane motives that prompt action 
in many cases, Miss Mulock says : 

" Young men will go their own way ; sow their wild 
oats — and reap them. I do not speak of extreme 
cases of reckless dissipation, upon which retribution 
follows only too swift and sure, but of small dissipa- 
tions, petty sins. A young fellow will dance till four 
in the morning several times a week, when he knows 
that every day in the week he must be at his office at 
nine, and is, being an honest fellow who wishes to get 
on in the world. But he does not consider how much 
he takes out of himself in life and health and strength, 
and sometimes out of his master's pocket too; for, 
with the best intentions, he cannot possibly do his 
work as well as it ought to be done. But he, too, does 
what he likes best to do, and deludes himself that it is 
the best ; and all the arguments in the world will 
never convince him to the contrary. 

"No more will they convince those other sinners — 
whose sin looks so like virtue — the clever men who 
kill themselves with overstudy ; the ambitious men who 
sacrifice everything to the mad desire of getting on in 



444 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

the world ; of being — not better or wiser or greater — 
but merely richer than their neighbors." 

True bravery is shown by performing without 
witnesses, what one might be capable of doing before 
all the world. This line of action is characteristic of the 
truly fearless man. Alas ! that so much merely reck- 
less action should be characterized as fearless. It is 
not fearlessness at all. It is rank cowardice — cow- 
ardice at the opinion of the public. On the other 
hand, the man who does not care for others, who does 
not sympathize with and help others, is very often 
pursued with a just retribution. He dosen't care for 
the foul pestilential air breathed by the inhabitants of 
houses a few streets off; but the fever which has been 
bred there floats into his house and snatches away 
those who are dearest to him. 

Most men live blindly to repeat a routine of 
drudgery and indulgence, without any deliberately 
chosen and maintained aims. Few live distinctly to 
develop the value of their being; know the truth ; love 
their fellows ; enjoy the beauty of the world, and 
aspire to God. 

When a man grows desperate for pleasure, that 
which ordinarily would be a weak temptation becomes 
to him very strong. In Esau, appetite was stronger 
than duty or honor. He thought lightly of his place 
in the family, and was in little real sympathy with his 
people ; and thus he did what was not really of a 
moment, but of a habit of mind and a state of heart 
he had been cherishing for years. Men come by dif- 
ferent and gradual stages to commit great crimes. 



RECKLESS OR FEARLESS. 445 

Small sins open the way for the greater that are to 
follow. Let sin be resisted at the threshold, and thus 
the way is blocked up against the commission of great 
sins afterwards. 

Goldsmith mentions an old lady, who, having been 
given over by her physician, played with the curate of 
the parish to pass the time away. Having won all his 
money, she next proposed playing for the funeral 
charges to which she would be liable. Unfortunately, 
the lady expired just as she had taken up the game! 

Of all the instances that can be given of reckless- 
ness of life, there is none that comes near that of the 
workmen employed in what is called dry pointing; 
the grinding of needles and of table-forks. The fine 
steel dust which they breathe brings on a painful disease 
of which they are almost sure to die before forty. 
And yet not only are men tempted by high wages to 
engage in this employment, but they resist to the 
utmost all the contrivances devised for diminishing the 
danger; through fear that this would cause more 
workmen to offer themselves, and thus lower wages ! 
The thing would appear incredible if it were not so 
fully attested. All this proves that reckless avarice 
overcomes the fear of death. And so may vanity ; 
witness the many women who wear tight dresses, and 
will even employ washes for the complexion which 
they know to be highly dangerous and even destruc- 
tive to their health. 

The number of imprudent persons who have been 
killed since the Franco-Prussian war in trying to empty 
the German shells that have been found unexploded 



446 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

in the fields round Paris, is extraordinary. At St. 
Denis, the past autumn, an old man of sixty-eight, who 
had a collection of German shells, was trying to empty 
another, when it exploded and blew him and his shop 
to pieces. The remnants of his body were found scat- 
tered in all directions. A similar accident is also re- 
ported from the arsenal of Belfort, where one artillery- 
man was killed and five wounded. Just so is it with 
those who needlessly take up what Paul calls "doctrines 
of devils," those destructive forms of atheistic unbelief 
that shatter our faith both in God and in humanity, 
which ruins both individuals and society. Keep off 
the devil's territory, and do not pervert the advice, 
"Prove all things," to encourage an inquisitive study 
of infidel books. 

Anger, of such a quality as the Bible calls righ- 
teous, may make one fearless, without being reckless. 
Luther says, " I never work better than when I am 
inspired by anger; when I am angry I can write, pray 
and preach well ; for then my whole temperament is 
quickened, my understanding sharpened, and all mun- 
dane vexations and temptations depart." 

I once heard this anecdote of Judge Parsons, the 
great Massachusetts advocate and lawyer. It is said 
that being about to try a mercantile case, he ordered 
a jury to be summoned, and among the names was 
that of Col. Thomas H. Perkins, the leading merchant 
of Boston in that day, and a personal friend of Judge 
Parsons. When the officer made his return, he laid 
down a fifty-dollar bill before the Judge. 

" What is that? " said Parsons. 



RECKLESS OR FEARLESS. 447 

" Col. Perkins says he is very busy ineeed today, 
and prefers to pay his fine." 

"Take that- back to Col. Perkins," said the Judge, 
" and tell him to come here at once ; and if he refuses,, 
bring him by force." 

When Col. Perkins appeared, the Judge looked 
sternly at him, and said, " What do you mean, sir, by 
sending money when you were summoned to sit on this 
jury?" 

Col. Perkins replied : " I meant no disrespect to 
the Court, your Honor; but I was extremely busy 
fitting out a ship for the East Indies, and I thought if I 
paid my fine I might be excused. 

"Fitting out a ship for the East Indies, sir!" 
shouted the Judge ; "and how happens it that you are 
able to fit out a ship for the East Indies ? " 

"Your Honor, I do not understand you." 

"I repeat, then, my question : How is it that you 
are able to fit out a ship for the East Indies? If you do 
not know, I will tell you. It is because the laws of 
your country are properly administered. If they were 
not, you would have no ships. Take your seat, sir, 
with the jury." 

The career of a missionary is the most dutiful and 
heroic of all. He carries his life in his hand. . He 
braves danger and death. He lives among savages,, 
sometimes among cannibals. Money could not buy 
the devotion with which he encounters peril and misery. 
He is only upheld by the mission of mercy with which 
he is charged. What are called " advanced thinkers " 
have nothing to offer us for the self-imposed work of 



44-8 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

missionaries at home and abroad. Mere negation 
teaches nothing. It may pull down, but it cannot build 
up. It may shake the pillars of our faith and leave 
nothing to hold by, nothing to sanctify, to elevate, or 
to strengthen our natures. 

~"g^ Io> ■■■ 

ft5AI^. 

The feast of vultures, and the waste of life. 

That fearful scourge of God, — cruel, relentless war. 
Only the wicked or the ignorant can wish for war. 
Those whose hearts are steeled to human woe may 
welcome war as the means of their aggrandizement ; 
and those who do not know what war is — who have 
never seen battle-fields, or hospitals, or besieged and 
destroyed cities — who have never helped to bury noble 
friends in shallow ditches right where they died — who 
never followed the wake of a desolating army — who 
have never known the poverty and the hunger, the 
widowhood and orphanage, the madness and the sin 
of war ; these may talk glibly of military glory, but the 
good man, who is wise, hates war and prays evermore 
for peace. 

Wherever there is war, there must be injustice on 
one side or the other, or on both. There have been 
wars which were little more than trials of strength be- 
tween friendly nations, and in which the injustice was 
not to each other, but to the God who gave them life. 
But in a malignant war there is injustice of ignobler 



war. 449 

kind at once to God and man, which must be stemmed 
for both their sakes. 

War is the matter which fills all history, and con- 
sequently the only, or almost the only, view in which we 
can see the external of political society is in a hostile 
shape ; and the only actions on which we have always 
seen, and still see all of them intent, are such as tend 
to the destruction of one another. As long as man- 
kind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on 
their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst of 
military glory will ever be the vice of the most ex- 
alted characters. 

The first great obstacle to the extinction of war, is 
the way in which the heart of man is carried off from 
its barbarities and its horrors by the splendor of its 
deceitful accompaniments. There is a feeling of the 
sublime in contemplating the shock of armies, just as 
there is in contemplating the devouring energy of a 
tempest ; and this so elevates and engrosses the whole 
man, that his eye is blind to the tears of bereaved 
parents, and his ear is deaf to the piteous moan of the 
dying, and the shriek of their desolated families. 

In war, people judge for the most part by the suc- 
cess, whatever is the opinion of the wiser sort. Let a 
man show all the good conduct that is possible; if the 
event does not answer, ill fortune passes for a fault 
and is justified but by a very few persons. 

The following thoughts are culled from many 

sources : Civil wars leave nothing but tombs. Anarchy 

and confusion, poverty and distress follow a civil war. 

Take my word for it, if you had seen but one day of 
, 29 



45° WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

war, you would pray to Almighty God that you might 
never see such a thing again. The fate of war is to be 
exalted in the morning, and low enough at night! 
There is but one step from triumph to ruin. The fate 
of a battle is the result of a moment, of a thought ; the 
hostile forces advance with various combinations, they 
attack each other and fight for a certain time ; the 
critical moment arrives, a mental flash decides, and the 
least reserve accomplishes the object. 

Woe to the man that first did teach the cursed 
steel to bite in his own flesh, and make way to the liv- 
ing spirit. Providence for war is the best prevention 
of it. 

The bodies of men, munition and money may justly 
be called the sinews of war. 

Among uncivilized nations only one profession is 
honorable — that of arms. I abhor bloodshed, and 
every species of terror erected into a system as reme- 
dies equally ferocious, unjust and inefficacious against 
evils that can only be cured by the diffusion of liberal 
ideas. 

Nobody sees a battle. The common soldier fires 
away, amid a smoky mist, or hurries on to the charge 
in a crowd which hides everything from him. The 
officer is too anxious about the performance of what 
he is specially charged with to mind what others are 
doing. The commander cannot be present every- 
where, and see every wood, water-course or ravine in 
which his orders are carried into execution ; he learns 
from reports how the work goes on. It is well ; for a 
battle is one of those jobs which men do without 



DUELLING. 451 

daring to look upon. Over miles of country, at every 
field fence, in every gorge of a valley or entry into 
a wood there is murder committing, wholesale, contin- 
uous, reciprocal murder. The human form, God's 
image, is mutilated, deformed, lacerated in every pos- 
sible way, and with every variety of torture. The 
wounded are jolted off in carts to the rear, their bared 
nerves crushed into maddening pain at every stone or 
rut ; or the flight and pursuit trample over them, 
leaving them to writhe and groan, without assistance, 
and fever and thirst, the most enduring of painful sen- 
sations, possess them entirely. 

Take heed 
How you wake our sleeping sword of war ; 
We charge you in the name of God, take heed. 
For never two such kingdoms did contend 
Without much fall of blood ; whose guiltless drops 
Are every one a woe, a sore complaint 
'Gainst him, whose wrong gives edge unto the swords, 
That make such waste in brief mortality. 

Shakespeare. 



Duelling. 

Of all the cowardly, craven excuses for shirking a 
man's duty and quieting his conscience, this senseless 
appeal to a wounded " honor," is the most despicable 
and wicked. A man seeks an excuse for gratifying his 
desire for revenge, and gives or accepts a challenge. 
He and his misguided friends think it is an honorable 
thing. But he places himself upon a level with the 
lowest assassin and sneak-thief, for he yields to the 
basest passions that ever swayed the human heart. 



452 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

It is the duty of every true man to cry out with un- 
blushing earnestness against the wicked, senseless prac- 
tice of duelling. Boys should be taught that there is a 
high standard of bravery where the fear of being called 
a coward will have no lodging-place. They should be 
taught that an inward consciousness of courage, and re- 
sponsibility to God, is of greater consequence than all 
the satisfaction that can ever be rendered to " wounded 
honor." A perfect horror of the sacrifice of a human 
life, or the shedding of humaVi blood, should be incor- 
porated into the completed education of every young 
man and young woman of our land, and then, and not 
till then, will duelling cease. 

Men are very slow to give up their faith in physi- 
cal force, as necessary for the guidance, correction and 
discipline of others. Force is a very palpable thing, 
and dispenses with all inquiry into causes and effects. 
It is the short way of settling matters without any 
weighing of arguments. It is the summary logic of 
the barbarians, among whom the best man is he who 
strikes the heaviest blow or takes the surest aim. 

Even civilized nations have been very slow to 
abandon their faith in force. Until very recent times, 
men of honor, who chanced to fall out, settled their 
quarrels by the duel : and governments, almost with- 
out exception, resort to arms to settle their quarrels as 
to territory or international arrangements. Indeed, we 
have been so trained and educated into a belief in the 
efficacy of force — war has become so identified in 
history with honor, glory, and all sorts of high-sound- 
ing names — that we can scarcely imagine it possible 



DUELLING. 453 

that the framework of society could be held together, 
were the practice of force discarded, and that of love, 
benevolence and justice substituted in its place. 

And yet doubts are widely entertained as to the 
efficacy of the policy of force. It is suspected that 
force begets more resistance than it is worth, and that 
if men are put down by violent methods, a spirit of 
rebellion is created, which breaks out from time to 
time in violent deeds, in hatred, in vice, and in crime. 
Such, indeed, has been the issue of the policy of force 
in all countries and in all times. The history of the 
world is, to a great extent, the history of the failure of 
physical force. 

A bill has be^n introduced into the South Carolina 
Legislature by Senator Henderson which defines the 
offense, and fixes the punishment for duelling thus : If 
one person kills another in a duel, he shall be deemed 
guilty of murder, and suffer the punishment of death ; 
and so shall all the seconds or aids of the murderer. 
If, in a combat, either party should be wounded, no 
matter how slightly, any and all parties thereto shall 
be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, be 
imprisoned in the State penitentiary for not less than 
twenty years. The same law applies in the event of a 
challenge being accepted in that State, and the duel 
fought in another, with either of the above results. 

We take the above from a secular paper. Such a 
law in every State would be a good one Stalwart 
measures should be taken to make duelling odious. 

A writer who describes the celebrated duel be- 



454 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

tween Cilley and Graves, at Washington, thus closes 
the account : 

The wretched man who thus, from a false sense of 
honor, deprived Cilley of his life, his country of his 
services, and his young family of a tender and devoted 
father, soon retired from congress and lived out the 
remainder of his days in obscurity and wretchedness. 
The memory of his deed haunted him to the last. 
There is no more miserable being than one who has 
killed his fellow-man for no cause except to satisfy a 
false worldly pride. Remorse is, and should be, his 
perpetual portion and punishment. 

There appeared, many years ago, in a quaint old 
English publication an allegory, giving the imaginary 
origin of gaming. It is represented as a woman, the 
offspring of the God of War and the Goddess of 
Fortune. As she grew up she was courted by all the 
gay and extravagant of both sexes ; for she was of 
neither sex, and yet combining the attractions of each. 
At length, however, being mostly beset by men of the 
sword, she formed an unnatural union with one of 
them, and gave birth to twins — one called Duelling, 
the other Suicide. These became their mother's 
darlings, nursed by her with constant care and tender- 
ness, and her perpetual companions. 



GROWLING. 455 



GROWLING. 

Miserymongers (the word is not to be found in 
Webster, yet it suits) are those who do not really suf- 
fer affliction, but make a trade of it — and often a very 
thriving business too. They are scattered among 
every class, but especially they belong to the "genus 
irritable " — the second or third rate order of people 
who live by their brains. Not the first order, for the 
highest form of intellect is rarely miserable. True 
genius of the completest kind is not only a mental but 
a moral quality. Itself creates the atmosphere it lives 
in ; a higher and rarer air than that of common earth. 

" Calm pleasures there abide; — majestic pains." 

A habit of scolding indicates a want of self-disci- 
pline. The machinery has got from under our own 
hands, and has fallen to grating and destroying itself 
under the friction and perplexities of life. 

"Possess thyself" is a more important rule than 
" Know thyself." Without this primary virtue we are 
not in a condition to receive much good to ourselves, 
or to afford aid to others. 

Of all things which are to be met with here on 
earth there is nothing which can give such continual, 
such cutting, such useless pain as an undisciplined 
temper. The touchy and sensitive temper, which 
takes offense at a word ; the irritable temper, which 
finds offense in everything, whether intended or not ; 
the violent temper, which breaks through all bounds 



45^ WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

of reason when once roused; the jealous or sullen 
temper, which wears a cloud on the face all day and 
never utters a word of complaint; the discontented 
temper, brooding over its own wrongs ; the severe 
temper, which always looks at the worst side of what- 
ever is done ; the wilful temper, which overrides 
every scruple to gratify a whim — what an amount of 
pain have these caused in the hearts of men, if we 
could but sum up their results ! How many a soul 
have they stirred to evil impulses, how many a 
prayer have they stifled, how many an emotion of true 
affection have they turned to bitterness ! How hard 
they make all duties! How they kill the sweetest and 
warmest of domestic charities! Ill-temper is a sin 
requiring long and careful discipline. 

Every one must see daily instances of people who 
complain from a mere habit of complaining. With 
some, growling is chronic. Life is but one long fret. 
The flesh is feverish, the nerves unstrung, the spirit 
perturbed and in a state of unrest. The physical 
condition and material surroundings may have a strong 
tendency to disturb our equanimity and to exasperate 
our feelings ; but we ought to bear in mind that scold- 
ing never did anybody any good, and withal, grows to 
be very uncomfortable to the party who indulges in it. 

Scolding turns a household into a pandemonium, 
and a church into an inquisition. Bear in mind that 
kindness and gentle speech are a great deal easier to 
practice than opposites. Why practice the wrong 
thing when harder ? Arrest yourself in the indul- 



GROWLING. 457 

gence of this bad habit right here. Begin now, and 
put yourself under bonds to be good natured. 

People of gloomy, uncheerful imaginations or of 
envious, malignant tempers, whatever kind of life they 
are engaged in, will discover their natural tincture of 
mind in all their thoughts, words and actions. Worry 
is the bane of the times. It is everywhere. It comes 
in a thousand forms, and from ten thousand sources, 
and its inlets are wide open in the hearts of the multi- 
tude. People fret, and fume, and chafe themselves 
into disease and wretchedness, and finally into inani- 
tion and an untimely grave. 

Generally speaking, if you are troubled with " the 
blues," and cannot tell why, you may be sure that it 
springs from physical weakness. Instead of lying on 
a sofa and courting painful ideas, if you are a despond- 
ing lover, a hypochondriac or a valetudinarian, you 
should be up and stirring yourself. 

The blood of a melancholy man is thick and slow, 
creeping sluggishly through his veins, like muddy 
waters in a canal ; the blood of your merry, chirping 
philosopher is clear and quick, brisk as newly broached 
champagne. Try, therefore, to set your blood in 
motion. To effect this, don't go to guzzling down 
brandy-smashes, gin-cocktails or any of the other jug- 
gling compounds in which alcohol is disguised ; for 
every artificial stimulant will drag you down two de- 
grees for every one it lifts you up. The devil always 
beats us at barter. Try, rather, what a smart walk 
will do for you ; set your pegs in motion on rough, 
rocky ground, or hurry them up a steep, cragged hill; 



45^ WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

build a stone wall ; swing an ax over a pile of hickory or 
rock-maple; turn a grindstone; dig ditches ; practice 
"ground and lofty tumbling;" pour water into sieves 
with Danaides, or with Sisyphus " up the high hill heave 
a huge round stone;" in short, do anything that will 
start the perspiration, and you will soon cease to have 
your brains lined with black, as Burton expresses it, 
or to rise in the morning, as Cowper said, "like an 
infernal frog out of Acheron, crowned with the ooze 
and mud of melancholy." 

Nine-tenths of the worry of life is borrowed for 
nothing. Do your part ; never leave it undone. Be 
industrious ; be prudent ; be courageous. Then throw 
anxiety to the winds. " Sufficient unto the day is the 
evil thereof;" therefore do not borrow any for to-mor- 
row. No one ever looked for the dark side of life 
without finding it. Keep impatience out of your voice 
and manners as well as your heart. Some snap and 
slam through force of habit, even when their hearts 
are making as much music as a tea-kettle over glowing 
coals. Those passionate persons who carry their 
hearts in their mouths are rather to be pitied than 
feared ; their threatenings serving no other purpose 
than to forearm him that is threatened. 

The " Congregationalism" telling of the death of a 
young man who was not prepared for it, gives this 
history of his father's family: "They were church 
members, but many years ago had changed their resi- 
dence from the country to the city,- and their position 
in the church from one of influence in a small society 
to one of comparative obscurity in a large one. The 



GROWLING. 459 

new status never pleased them ; they were proud and 
disappointed ; they did not enjoy their back seats. 
Then they began to grumble. They grumbled at the 
minister, who did not do pastoral work enough to please 
them; they had been accustomed to see the pastor 
every day or two in the old home ; this man seemed 
indifferent to them; neither did his preaching please 
them ; and he had altogether too big a salary, and 
they fancied, seemed to preach for the money. They 
grumbled at the aristocrats in the church, people who 
were " stuck up," the church itself becoming too 
expensive a luxury for poor folks. The result of it all 
was that the formerly respectable family sank into one 
that was low and indifferent, and the death alluded to 
came as one of the natural and inevitable conse- 
quences." The picture thus presented has many 
counter-parts through all the churches, and they all tell 
the same story. If Christians spend their strength in 
criticisms and complaint, they will perish under so dete- 
riorating a discipline. Living faith, earnest going to 
work in devotion to God and love for our fellow-men, 
will bring salvation, but a failure to do this will work 
the other way. 

It is doubtful if there is philosophy enough in the 
world, even if it were impartially distributed, to put a 
stop to worry. Some people would begin to fret the 
next day after such a distribution of the antidote, that 
they hadn't got their share. And then some things 
are as much stronger than philosophy as blood is 
thicker than water. Temperament is one of them. 
Inherited mental traits or habits that have crystallized 



460 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

into disposition, are more of the same sort. A man 
who has the elements so mixed within him that he 
naturally borrows trouble, and crosses bridges before 
he gets to them, and permits things small or great to 
fret him, is bound to worry. He may as well attempt 
to alter his complexion, or change the thickness of his 
skin, as to stop worrying. The most he can do is to 
control the expression of his mental state within him- 
self — and that is often more wearing to him than to 
give vent to his feelings. Speech is the safety-valve 
for constitutional growlers, and they are truly blessed 
if they have a friend with a willing ear and a buoyant 
nature, on whom their poured-out troubles have no 
more effect than a summer shower on a silk umbrella. 



Degradation. 

Close beside every man there walks the ghost of what he might have been. 
If you do not wish to trade with the devil, keep out of his shop. — Thos* 
Fuller. 

A man may corrupt his taste and introduce an ele- 
ment of vulgarism into his expressiveness by careless 
familiarity with the foul and unlovely. There are a 
great many men that read books to understand human 
nature, who do not know that they are pouring filth 
into the currents of their souls. There are a great 
many men who, when they are abroad, go to see sights 
that human eyes ought not to look upon, except they 
be eyes of mercy looking to save men as brands from 
the everlasting burning. A man at the center must 



DEGRADATION. 46 1 

be thoroughly and immaculately pure, if he would be 
at the circumference filled with fine sensibilities and 
delicate tastes so as to appreciate the nobly grand and 
the singularly beautiful. 

Man is an animal that cannot long be left in safety 
without occupation; the growth of fallow nature is apt 
to run to weeds. A few days since, a man put an end 
to his life because he could not find employment. 
After his death, a hotel bill was found in his pocket, 
the amount of which was fifty-four dollars, more than 
half of which was charged under the head of " Bar." 

None are so much hardened as those who hear 
the word, and are not converted under it ; they are 
beaten into adamante by Satan himself on the anvil of 
hell. When a person has his heart filled with sinful 
thoughts and desires they prevent the Lord from 
working in such a heart to turn it from sin to holiness. 

A skeptic at a social party engrossed general at- 
tention by an effort to prove that human beings have 
no souls. Seeing the company staring at him in 
wonder and silence, he finally said to a lady, "What do 
you think of my arguments, madam ? " She promptly 
replied, "It appears to me, sir, that you have been 
employing a good deal of talent to prove yourself a 
beast." There was both wit and wisdom in the lady's 
reply, fqr if man be not immortal, what is he more 
than a beast? How degraded is that man who can 
pride himself on his skill in attempting to prove him- 
self degraded. 

It is held by many philosophers that man has in 



462 .WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

his single nature the elements of every animal, bird 
and reptile on the globe. 

This alleged philosophical truth is applied in detail 
by mankind in general. It is common to say that a 
certain kind of man is a fox; that another is a donkey; 
another a hog ; another a snake. Girls are apt to de- 
scribe a certain kind of bachelor as "a perfect old 
bear." Young men, in a certain state of heart, are 
given to ornithological metaphors and call their sweet- 
hearts birds, doves, etc. An affectionate, playful wife, 
sometimes refers to her husband as "a dear old 
goose." A certain kind of man is always spoken of 
contemptuously as " an old biddy," because he is weak 
and fretful, and goes clucking and scratching around 
like an old hen. 

The most revolting creature which is elemental in 
the human heart, though men are seldom compared to 
it, is the buzzard. „ 

The buzzard of the air feasts on decaying sub- 
stances. The buzzard of the heart feasts on decaying 
character. It revels in slander, and in all the moral 
debasement which is exhibited by depraved souls in 
their efforts to drag others down to their own wretched 
condition. 

These buzzards of the heart are found in all ranks 
of society. Let one of them, in a car, or on a steam- 
boat, or at a party, or in a church vestibule, begin to 
tear at a bit of scandal ever so gently, and other 
similar creatures, with like depraved appetites, will 
gather around. 

Let the dove in a man coo good of a fellow mortal, 



DEGRADATION. 463 

and these same persons will instinctively shrink away 
from him as a bore, while doves in other hearts 
respond with answering coos of appreciation. 

For our part, we prefer the doves of human nature 
to the buzzards. 

A curious case is reported in the London papers of 
1820 of James Lloyd, who practiced on the credulity 
of the lower orders by keeping a Little Go, or illegal 
lottery. He was brought up for the twentieth time to 
answer for that offense. This man was a Methodist 
preacher, and assembled his neighbors together at his 
dwelling on a Saturday to preach the gospel to them,, 
and the remainder of the week he was to be found, 
with an equally numerous party, instructing them in 
the ruinous vice of gambling. The charge was clearly 
proved, and the prisoner was sentenced to three 
months' imprisonment with hard labor. 

" The sharp, the black-leg, and the knowing one, 
Livery or lace, the self same circle run : 
The same the passion, end and means the same — 
Dick and his Lordship differ but in name." 

The truth is, we have become too selfish. We 
think of ourselves far more than of others. The more 
devoted to pleasure, the less we think of our fellow- 
creatures. Selfish people are impervious to the needs 
of others. They exist in a sort of mailed armor, and 
no weapons, either of misery or want, can assail them. 
Their senses are only open to those who can minister 
to their gratifications. "There are men," says St. 
Chrysostom, " who seem to have come into the world 
only for pleasure, and that they might fatten this per- 
ishable body. At sight of their luxurious table the 



464 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

angels retire — God is offended — the demons rejoice — 
virtuous men are shocked — and even the domestics 
scorn and laugh. The just men who have gone before 
left sumptuous feasts to tyrants, and to men enriched 
by crime, who were the scourges of the world." 

We no longer know how to live upon little. A 
man must have luxury about him. And yet a man's 
life does not consist in the abundance of things he 
possesseth ; he must live honestly, though poor. Re- 
trenchment of the useless, the want even of the rela- 
tively necessary, is the high road to Christian self- 
denial, as well as to antique strength of character. 

The idle and selfish man cares little for the rest of 
the world. He does nothing to help the forlorn or 
the destitute. " What are they to me ?" he says ; "let 
them look after themselves. Why should I help 
them ? They have done nothing for me ! They are 
suffering? There always will be suffering in the 
world. What can't be cured must be endured. It will 
be all the same a hundred years hence ! " 

" Don't care " can scarcely be roused by a voice 
from the dead. He is so much engrossed by his own 
pleasures, his own business, or his own idleness, that 
he will give no heed to the pressing claims of others. 
The discussions about poverty, ignorance or suffering 
annoy him. " Let them work," he says ; " why should 
I keep them ? Let them help themselves." The sloth 
is an energetic animal compared with " Don't care." 

John Plowman speaks as follows: ' Everything in 
the world is of some use ; but it would puzzle a doctor 
of divinity, or a philosopher, or the wisest owl in our 



DEGRADATION. 465 

steeple, to tell the good of idleness ; that seems to me 
to be an ill wind which blows nobody any good — a 
sort of mud which breeds no eels, a dirty ditch which 
would not feed a frog. Sift a sluggard grain by grain, 
and you'll find him all chaff. I have heard men say, 
"Better do nothing than do mischief," but I am not 
even sure of that ; that saying glitters well, but I don't 
believe it's gold. I grudge laziness even that pinch of 
praise ; I say it is bad, and bad altogether ; for, look 
ye, a man doing mischief is a sparrow picking corn — 
but a lazy man is a sparrow sitting on a nest full of 
eggs which will all turn to sparrows before long and 
do a world of hurt. Don't tell me, I'm sure of it, that 
the rankest weeds on earth don't grow in the minds of 
those who are busy at wickedness, but in foul corners 
of idle men's imaginations, where the devil can hide 
away unseen, like an old serpent as he is. 

I don't like our boys to be in mischief, but I would 
sooner see them up to their ifecks in the mud in their 
larks than sauntering about with nothing to do. If the 
evil of doing nothing seems to be less to-day, you will 
find it out to be greater to-morrow ; the devil is putting 
coals on the fire, so the fire does not blaze, but, depend 
upon it, it will be a bigger fire in the end. Idle people, 
you had need be your own trumpeters, for no one else 
can find any good in you to praise. I'd sooner see 
you through a telescope than anything else, for I sup- 
pose you would then be a long way off; but the biggest 
pair of spectacles in the parish could not see anything 
in you worth talking about. 

Debt is so degrading, that if I owed a man a penny 

30 



466 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

I would walk twenty miles in the depth of winter to 
pay him, sooner than to feel that I was under an 
obligation. I should be as comfortable with peas in 
my shoes, or a hedgehog in my bed, or a snake up 
my back, as with bills hanging over my head at the 
grocer's, and baker's, and the tailor's. Poverty is 
hard, but debt is horrible ; a man might as well have 
a smoky house and a scolding wife, which are said to 
be the two worst evils of our life. We may be poor, 
and yet respectable, which John Ploughman and wife 
hope they are and will be ; but a man in debt cannot 
even respect himself, and he is sure to be talked 
about by the neighbors, and that talk will not be much 
to his credit. Some persons appear to like to be owing 
money ; but I would as soon be a cat up a chimney 
with the fire alight, or a fox with the hounds at my 
heels, or a hedgehog on a pitchfork, or a mouse under 
an owl's claw. 

An honest man thinks a purse full of other people's 
money to be worse than an empty one: he cannot 
bear to eat other people's cheese, wear other people's 
shirts, and walk about in other people's shoes, neither 
will he be easy while his wife is decked out in the 
milliner's bonnets, and wears the. draper's flannels. 
The jackdaw in the peacock's feathers was soon 
plucked, and borrowers will surely come to poverty — 
a poverty of the bitterest sort, because there is shame 
in it. 

Living beyond their incomes is the ruin of many of 
my neighbors ; they can hardly afford to keep a rabbit, 
and must needs drive a pony and chaise. I am afraid 



SECRET SINS. 467 

extravagance is the common disease of the times, and 
many professing Christians have caught it, to their 
shame and sorrow. Good cotton or stuff gowns are 
not good enough nowadays ; girls must have silks and 
satins, and then there's a bill at the dressmaker's as 
long as a winter's night, and quite as dismal. 

Show and style and smartness run away with a 
man's means, keep the family poor, and the father's 
nose on the grindstone. Frogs try to look as big as 
bulls, and burst themselves. Ten dollars a week apes 
five thousand a year, and comes to the county court. 
Men burn the candle at both ends, and then say they 
are very unfortunate — why don't they put the saddle 
on the right horse, and say they are extravagant? 
Economy is half the battle in life ; it is not so hard to 
earn money as to spend it well. Hundreds would 
have never known want if they had not first known 
waste. 



Sbg^ehi Sins. 

The nurse of infidelity is sensuality. — Cecil. 

What is sin ? Is it an overt act of the body ? Is it 
necessarily a visible movement ? Does sin reside in 
the material world as the pestilence ? Surely not. Sin 
is in the thought, in the imagination, in the affections, 
in the will, ft is there where we resist God and his 
holiness. It is there where we form character for 
eternity. It is there where God's eye rests. 

"Temptations lurk," says Bishop Huntington, "in 



468 WELL-SrRINGS OF TRUTH. 

the pillows of comfort on which thoughtless heads are 
laid ; in pleasures that make earth so satisfying that we 
feel no need of heaven ; in traffic, whose gain is offered 
for falsehood ; in labor, where the world gambles for 
the soul ; in emulation, where ambition is mistaken for 
wisdom ; in fellowship, where criminality is mistaken 
for cordiality and flattery for friendship. These are 
clothed like angels of light. Here in our hearts is 
Satan's seat, but no harm can come but by the yield- 
ing of a perverted will." 

Look at that oyster shell. Do you see a little hole 
in the hard roof of the oyster's house ? That explains 
why there is a shell but no oyster. A little creature 
called the whelk, living in a spiral shell, dropped one 
day on the roof of the oyster's house. " The little in- 
nocents," some one has called the whelks. " The little 
villains," an oyster would call them, for the whelk has 
an auger, and bores, and bores, and bores, until he 
reaches the oyster itself, and the poor oyster finds he 
is going up through his own roof. He goes up, but he 
never comes down. 

A writer speaks of noticing on the shores of Brit- 
tany the holes in the oyster bored by its enemy, both 
burglar and murderer, we should call him. 

"A little sin, a little sin !" cries a boy who may have 
been caught saying a profane word, or strolling with 
a bad associate, or reading a bad book, or sipping a 
glass of beer. "Don't make too much of it!" he 
says. 

Young friend, that's the whelk on the oyster's back, 
You have given the tempter a chance to use his auger, 



SECRET SINS. 469 

and he will bore and bore till he reaches the center of 
all moral worth in the soul, and draws your very life 
away. 

In the highway of every life there is a lion, who 
wrestles with us and strengthens us. Some of the 
finest light dawns upon our souls from successful con- 
flict with secret sins. In the commission of evil, fear 
no man so much as thyself. Another is but one witness 
against thee : thou art a thousand ; another thou may- 
est avoid : thyself thou canst not. Wickedness is its 
own punishment. Temptation is not sin, and no man 
need be defiled by it except through his own yielding 
and failure to turn aside from it. 

The ruin of most men dates from some vacant 
hour. Occupation is the armor of the soul; and the 
train of idleness is borne up by all the vices. I 
remember a satirical poem in which the devil is repre- 
sented as fishing for men, and adapting his baits to the 
tastes and temperament of his prey ; but the idler, he 
said, pleased him most, because he bit the naked hook. 
To the young man away from home, friendless and 
forlorn in a great city, the hours of peril are those 
between sunset and bedtime ; for the moon and stars 
see more of evil in a single hour than the sun in his 
whole day's circuit. A vile imagination, once indulged, 
gets the key of our minds, and can get in again very 
easily, whether we will or no, and can. so return as to 
bring seven other spirits with it, more wicked than 
itself; and what may follow, no one knows. 

The gnawings of appetite are like a roused lioness 
with her whelps. How many there are who wish they 



470 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

were released from its thraldom ! But they have not 
tried to be, or have tried, it may be repeatedly, and 
have failed. The first external revelations of the dry- 
rot in men is a tendency to lurk and lounge; to be at 
street corners without intelligible reason ; to be going 
anywhere when met ; to be about many places rather 
than any one ; to do nothing tangible but to have an 
intention of performing a number of tangible duties 
to-morrow or the day after. 

Original sin is in us like the beard: we are shaved 
to-day and look clean, and have a smooth chin ; 
to-morrow our beard has grown again, nor does it 
cease growing while we remain on earth. In like 
manner original sin cannot be extirpated from us; it 
springs up in us as long as we exist ; nevertheless we 
are bound to resist it to our utmost strength, and to 
cut it down unceasingly. 

Love is rarely a hypocrite. But hate ! how detect, 
and how guard against it. It lurks where you least 
expect it, it is created by causes that you can the least 
foresee ; and civilization multiplies its varieties whilst 
it favors its disguise ; for civilization increases the 
number of contending interests, and refinement ren- 
ders more susceptible to the least irritation the cuticle 
of self-love. 

The fallen angels had been long obedient, but one 
sin, the first sin,. turned God's heart against them. He 
swept them from his presence and from his heart. It 
had another effect. It completely changed their hearts 
towards God. Don't trifle with one sin. Who can tell of 
the bitterness that has been in the hearts of these 



SECRET SINS. 47 I 

angels ever since from trifling with one sin? Of the 
wrath, the eternal blight that came upon them? God 
spared them not, but cast them down to hell. They are 
now reserved in chains, in darkness, unto the judg- 
ment of the great day, and at the end are to be cast 
into the lake of fire. All for one sin, no kindness 
shown them from the beginning. Why God has com- 
passion for our world when he has none for the fallen 
angels, no man can tell. 

It is an awful thing to see a soul in ruins ; like a 
temple which once was fair and noble, but now lies 
overthrown, matted with ivy, weeds and tangled briers, 
among which things loathsome crawl and live. He shall 
reap the harvest of disappointment, — the harvest of 
bitter, useless remorse. The crime of sense is avenged 
by sense, which wears by time. He shall have the 
worm that gnaws, and the fire that is not quenched. 
He shall reap the fruit of long indulged desires, which 
have become tyrannous at last, and constitute him his 
own tormenter. His harvest is a soul in flames, and 
the tongue that no drop can cool ; passions that burn, 
and appetites that crave, when the power of enjoyment 
is gone. He has sowed to the flesh; "God is not 
mocked." The man reaps. 

There are persons who go through life sinning and 
sorrowing, sorrowing and sinning. No experience 
Jteaches them. Torrents of tears flow from their eyes. 
They are full of eloquent regrets. You cannot find it 
in your heart to condemn them, for their sorrow is so 
graceful and touching, so full of penitence and self- 
condemnation. But tears, heartbreaks, repentance, 



47 2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

warnings, are all in vain. Where they did wrong 
once, they do wrong again. What are such persons 
to do in the next life ? 

God only knows. But Christ has said : "Not 
every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter 
into the kingdom of heaven." 

The heart — the heart — there is the evil ! The 
imagination, which was given to spiritualize the senses,, 
is often turned into a means of sensualizing the spirit. 
Beware of reverie, and indulgence in forbidden images,, 
unless you would introduce into your bosom a serpent, 
which will creep, and crawl, and leave the venom of 
its windings in your heart. Think not that guilt re- 
quires the burning torches of the Furies to agitate and 
torment it. Frauds, crimes, remembrances of the past, 
terrors of the future, — there are the domestic Furies 
that are ever present to the mind of the impious- 
Malice is mental murder; you may kill a man and 
never touch him. 

No man, for any considerable period, can wear one 
face to himself and another to the multitude, without 
finally getting bewildered as to which may be true. It 
is astonishing how soon the whole conscience begins to 
unravel if a single stitch drops ; one single sin indulged 
in makes a hole you could put your head through. 

Perhaps envy, like lying and ingratitude, is prac- 
ticed with more frequency, because it is practiced with 
impunity; but there being no human laws against these 
crimes, is so far from an inducement to commit them,, 
that this very consideration would be sufficient to deter 
the wise and good, if all others were ineffectual ; for of 



VICIOUS AMUSEMENTS. 473 

how heinous a nature must those sins be which are 
judged above the reach of human punishment, and are 
reserved for the final justice of God himself. 

Are you the keeper of a guilty secret? And do 
you think it can never break the walls of your heart, 
and pass by the affrighted sentinels of your lips ? It 
will escape in spite of your careful dreaming. Confess 
it to Christ, and be rid of the burden forever. 



UlGIOUS flMUSBMBNTS. 

A morning paper recently contained the following 
advertisement : 

"Wanted — A dog. Will pay ten dollars for a 

good young dog. Bring dog for two days to , 

C Hotel." 

The advertisement was sent to the paper by a 
number of friends (?) of the gentleman whose name 
appeared with it, the object being only to perpetrate a 
practical joke. The victim of the joke was absent 
from the city during the day on which the advertise- 
ment appeared, but when he returned to his hotel in 
the evening, what was his surprise and bewilderment 
to be pounced upon by what seemed to him for a mo- 
ment a small army of dog-owners, each anxious to 
dispose of an ill-favored cur. It is needless to say that 
every one of them went from the hotel carrying his 
dog with him, while a vengeful spirit took possession 



474 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

of the irate victim as he ascended the stairs to his 
room. 

Macaulay's truthful words concerning practical 
jokes came to mind when we heard of this silly pro- 
ceeding. Speaking of Frederick the Great, the brill- 
iant essayist says : 

41 He had one taste which may be pardoned in a 
boy, but which, when habitually and deliberately in- 
dulged in by a man of mature age and strong under- 
standing, is almost invariably the sign of a bad heart— 
a taste for severe practical jokes. If a friend of the 
king was fond of dress, oil was flung over his richest 
suit. If he was fond of money, some prank was in- 
vented to make him disburse more than he could 
spare. If he was hypochondriacal, he was made to 
believe that he had the dropsy. If he particularly set 
his heart on visiting a place, a letter was forged to 
frighten him from going thither. 

" These things, it may be said, are trifles. They 
are so, but they are indications not to be mistaken of 
a nature to which the sight of human suffering and 
human degradation is an agreeable excitement." 

What do you think, boys — was Macaulay right 
when he said this taste for so mean a thing as practical 
joking may be pardoned in a boy? If it is a thing to 
be shunned by men, ought not boys to let it alone? 

"They cheated a man and killed him," said a little 
boy to his father. The father was about to remonstrate 
and to inform the child that cheating was not killing. 
But the child continued his story. That one of his 
school-fellows informed him that several men had com- 



VICIOUS AMUSEMENTS. 475 

bined to make another man believe that they were 
drinking gin, when in fact it was only water; and that 
the man fell a victim to the imposture, by continuing 
to drink as much gin as his companions did water, 
until he killed himself. Thus cheating turned out to 
be killing the body, and we fear has sometimes killed 
the soul. 

It is right that we should brighten our lives with in- 
nocent pleasure; far be it from me to deny the hu- 
manizing effects of harmless happiness. But while 
this is right and allowable, it is not grand nor heroic. 
The highest type of character, be he stoic, monk or 
apostle, thinks little of his own happiness, and scarcely 
knows the meaning of the word pleasure. There are 
flowers for the bridal garland, blossoms for the May 
queen's crown, but for the brow of the hero, only the 
gray of the olive, only the green of the laurel. 

That which weakens one's power or dwarfs his 
spiritual nature can never be sanctioned as an appro- 
priate amusement. The physical life, the intellectual 
life, the spiritual life, in their subtle relations, must en- 
ter into the problem of recreations, as must also our 
brother's good. It is far from my design severely to 
condemn the innocent pleasures of life ; I would only 
beg leave to observe that those which are criminal 
should never be allowed ; and that even the most in- 
nocent will, by immoderate use, soon cease to be so. 

Rollin, the historian, asserts that the decline and 
fall of the Athenian States was owing to the fondness 
of the people for theaters. No nation can long endure 
and advance whose ideal ignores moral beauty. Cor- 



47 6 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

ruption brings death. Culture can only carve and 
whiten the sepulchre of a nation ; it cannot stay the 
progress of dissolution. No virtue on the part of our 
parents can save us if the salt of our character has 
lost its savor. 

A Roman Catholic bishop of New York, in conver- 
sation with a bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church, 
recently stated that the work of the confessional re- 
vealed the fact that nineteen out of every twenty 
women who fall can trace the beginning of their sad 
state to the modern dance. 

Crockford's, which was opened in 1827, was the 
most famous of modern London gambling-houses. It 
was fashionable. Crockford was originally a fishmon- 
ger. In 1840 he retired a millionaire, much as an In- 
dian chief retires from a hunting country when there 
is not game enough left for his tribe. Turf- gambling 
has long been one of the most conspicuous of En- 
glish immorals. Lord Foley, who died in 1 793, is sup- 
posed to have lost a million dollars on the turf. In 
1867, the late young Marquis of Hastings lost five 
hundred thousand dollars on Hermit. When rapid de- 
cay and a premature death put an end to his sufferings, 
many felt that he had atoned for his errors and indis- 
cretions, while all united in considering him another 
unfortunate victim added to the long list of those who 
have sacrificed their fortune, health and honor to the 
gambling Moloch presiding over the turf of England. 

Not less vicious and cruel is that mind which can 
find amusement in the slaughter of any of God's crea- 
tures, even though it be nothing more than a little fly. 



VICIOUS AMUSEMENTS. 477 

A very bad state of things prevails at the Bass Rock 
in the Firth of Forth. The solon goose has made it 
the favorite haunt of bird-killers. Yachts and steamers 
sail round the rock, and for hours keep up an inces- 
sant and deadly fusillade. The birds, young and old, 
fall in scores, and, whether wounded or dead, are left to 
their fate. The wounded, with broken legs or bleed- 
ing wings, toss about the restless ocean, mutilated 
waifs, and die in tortures impossible to describe. And 
yet inhuman beings call this " sport." 

Here, for instance, is a case in which the brute was 
much better than the man. A certain dog belonged 
to a farmer in Cumberland. The man made a bet that 
his dog would drive a flock of sheep from Cumberland 
to Liverpool, a distance of more than a hundred miles, 
without help or supervision. Considering the tortuous 
road, the groups of animals and conveyances to be met 
on the road, and the length of the journey, the dog's 
chances seemed hopeless. Nevertheless, in the course 
of a few days, the dog reached Liverpool with all his 
flock. The dog had done his duty, but he was famished. 
After delivering up his charge, he fell down dead on 
the street of Liverpool — a victim to his master's 
brutality. 

A constant habit of amusement relaxes the tone of 
the mind, and renders it totally incapable of application, 
study or virtue. Dissipation not only indisposes its 
votaries to everything useful and excellent, but dis- 
qualifies them for the enjoyment of pleasure itself. To 
those persons who have vomited out of their souls all 
remnants of goodness, there rests a certain pride in 



47 8 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

evil ; and having else no shadow of glory left them, 
they glory to be constant i-n iniquity. 

"No one," says Jerome, "loves to tell of scandal 
except to him who loves to hear it." Learn, then, to 
rebuke and check the detracting tongue by showing 
that you do not listen to it with pleasure. It is 
observed of the hen that, loathing the plenty of meat 
that is cast before her on a clean floor, she will be 
scratching in a hole or spurring the dunghill in search 
of one single musty grain. So these over busy people, 
neglecting such obvious and common things into 
which any man may inquire and talk of without offense, 
cannot be satisfied unless they rake into the private and 
concealed evils of every family in the neighborhood. 
It was smartly said by the Egyptian who, being asked 
what it was he carried so closely, replied, it was there- 
fore covered that it might be secret. 

Luxury and dissipation, soft and gentle as their ap- 
proaches are, and silently as they throw their silken 
chains about the heart, enslave it more than the most 
active and turbulent vices. The mightiest conquerors 
have been conquered by these unarmed foes ; the 
flowery fetters are fastened before they are felt. The 
blandishments of Circe were fatal to the mariners of 
Ulysses, as well as the cruelty of Polyphemus and the 
brutality of the Lsestrigous. Hercules, after he had 
cleansed the Augaean stables, and performed all the 
other labors enjoined upon him by Euristheus, found 
himself a slave «to the softness of the heart; and he 
who wore a club and a lion's skin in the cause of 
virtue condescended to the most effeminate employ- 






VICIOUS AMUSEMENTS. 479 

ments to gratify a criminal weakness. Hannibal, who 
vanquished mighty nations, was himself overcome by 
the love of pleasure ; and he who despised cold and 
want, and danger, and death, on the Alps, was con- 
quered and undone by the dissolute indulgences of 
Capua. 

Before Telemachus landed on the island of Cyprus, 
he unfortunately lost his prudent companion Mentor, 
in whom wisdom is so finely personified. At first he 
beheld with horror the wanton and dissolute manners 
of the voluptuous inhabitants. The ill effects of their 
example were not immediate. He did not fall into the 
commission of glaring enormities, but his virtue was 
secretly and imperceptibly undermined, his heart was 
softened by their pernicious society, and the nerve of 
resolution was slackened. He every day beheld with 
diminished indignation the worship which was offered 
to Venus. The disorders of luxury and profaneness 
became less and less terrible ; and the infectious air of 
the country enfeebled his courage and relaxed his 
principles. In short, he had ceased to love virtue long 
before he thought of committing actual vice; and the 
duties of a manly piety were burdensome to him be- 
fore he was so debased as to offer perfumes and burn 
incense on the altar of the licentious goddess. 

Those who have not yet determined on the side of 
vanity, who, like Hercules (before he knew the Queen 
of Lydia, and had learned to spin), have not resolved 
on their choice between virtue and pleasure, may 
reflect that it is still in their power to imitate that 
noble hero in his noble choice, and in his virtuous 



480 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

rejection. They may also reflect, with grateful 
triumph, that Christianity furnishes them with a better 
guide than the tutor of Alciades, and with a surer light 
than the doctrines of pagan philosophy. 



Dii^b, Disease and Death. 

There are few more prolific causes of disease than 
the miasmic exhalations which occur especially in 
new and unsettled regions, or which arise from the 
presence of stagnant water or decaying and putrescent 
substances. Sometimes through such malarial in- 
fluences, all who inhabit a certain house, or drink of a 
certain well, or reside in a certain city, or who dwell 
upon the borders of some stream or marsh, are 
especially liable to be seized with some deadly disease 
which pursues them to their very tombs. Thus many 
localities are known to be notoriously unhealthy, and 
the general condition of the dwellers there is a condi- 
tion of infirmity, feebleness and disease. And though 
some robust constitutions may overcome these evil 
tendencies, and may escape for the time the dread 
infliction, yet these cases are exceptional, and with the 
multitude the case is otherwise. 

But there are other miasmic influences which 
affect the mental and spiritual life of man. There are 
schools of thought which are pestilential ; there are 
educational influences which are ruinous. There are 
communities where the moral tone is low and un- 



DIRT, DISEASE AND DEATH. 48 1 

healthful, and where moral disease and spiritual death 
seem to prevail. There are classes of opinions which 
exercise the direst influence upon those who embrace 
them. There are religious communities in which the 
sap and life which appertains to Christian faith have 
been withdrawn and destroyed by the presence of 
some insidious and deadly error which poisons and 
ruins everything around them. 

Spiritual degradation as naturally follows and 
supervenes upon physical degradation, as night 
follows upon day. Surround a man or woman with 
low, debasing circumstances ; induce one to forego 
the common habits of cleanliness ; force him to 
abstain from habitual means of comfort and happiness ; 
and his moral tone will be lowered in direct ratio. 
Habit of mind may be so strong as to hold him from 
the indulgence of vice, but the inclination will be much 
stronger to do evil than before. 

The man who has fixed principles of care for his 
bodily health, and who attends closely to the observ- 
ance of the rules of hygiene, will, other things being 
equal, offer a much stronger resistance to temptations 
to an evil life, and if he is overtaken and overcome by 
seductive circumstances, he will rally to a reformed 
life in almost every instance, while the careless man, 
reckless of his physical health, sinks lower and lower, 
too indolent to grasp the opportunity for reformation. 

It is impossible for one to lead a righteous life and 
at the same time be indifferent to personal cleanliness. 
It has been well said "Cleanliness is next to Godli- 

31 



482 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

ness." In fact it is so near to Godliness, that the latter 
cannot dwell long in the human heart without the 
former. The professing Christian, who continues 
indifferent to filth and its accompanying discomforts, 
belies his profession, for the Gospel teaches the doc- 
trine of purity of body as well as of soul. 

Dirt, as well as disease and death, is one of the 
accompanying curses of sin, and as we get out from 
under the dominion of sin, we put off our affiliation and 
companionship with its associates. To keep clean, 
then, is not only a means of comfort, happiness and 
health, but is a Christian duty, incumbent on every one 
of us who profess to be led by Him who came to 
bestow life upon a dying race. 

Not very long ago I heard a clergyman seriously 
proclaim that " the Gospel " must first be given to the 
starving, sinning, suffering denizens of London courts 
and alleys — the Gospel first, and food, clothes, soap 
and water, and decent dwellings afterwards. It is one 
of the trying things of going to church that whatever 
a man says one must hear him ; one cannot stand up 
and contradict him ; else I should like to have sug- 
gested to this well-meaning but narrow-visioned 
preacher how much a man's moral nature depends 
upon his surroundings. Diogenes might not have 
been a cynic if he had not lived in a tub ; and I doubt 
if the noblest man alive, if compelled to inhabit a pig- 
sty, would long remain much better than a swine. 

Therefore it behooves us to take heed that the cor- 
poreal habitation into which our spirit is put — for this 
life at least — is dealt with as kindly as circumstances 



TRAMPS. 483 

allow, carefully cherished, swept and garnished, and 
made the most commodious residence possible, so as to 
allow free play to its immortal inhabitant. 



(STAMPS. 

Vagabondage, which is, in its present form, a new 
thing in this country, should be made a penal offense, 
and the tramp be regarded as an enemy to social or- 
der, to be summarily arrested and compelled to 
earn his bread by hard labor. Until some such 
plan as this is adopted, the evil will continue, and will 
grow to such unendurable proportions that citizens 
will be driven to desperate measures to rid themselves 
of the evil. 

The following sensible words are taken from a 
recent periodical: "All through the country during the 
past few years there has been an unheard-of pother 
concerning tramps, who, like locusts, have been 
swarming over the land. They have proved them- 
selves beggars, thieves, robbers and murderers, and 
have become a scourge to the rural communities. 
Where do they come from, and what condition of 
society has produced them, are interesting questions. 
They are a class unknown until quite recently. Local 
authorities have been much troubled as to the disposi- 
tion of these pests. A bill has been introduced into 
the Legislature of New York, providing for their 
arrest and confinement. To meet the expenses it is 



484 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

provided that they may be farmed out and compelled 
to work ; and if they wish to be sent to their homes, 
they are to be obliged to work and earn the money it 
would cost to transport them there. These tramps are 
getting to be such a nuisance, and such a danger, that 
something must be done to protect the people in the 
country from their depredations." 

The "New Haven Register" contains the following: 
"A reverend gentleman recently went to the town 
agent's office to make explanations in regard to a 
family that was making considerable trouble for the au- 
thorities. He said that the husband was utterly unfit 
to have the care of a family and would not support his 
wife, and therefore was very much in favor of a legal 
separation as the best thing, not only for the man and 
woman, but for the town. The case was one that ex- 
cited considerable interest among the authorities, as it 
was found that the husband was the son of a father 
and mother, both of whom had during the later years 
of their lives been recipients of town charity. 

" When this fact was ascertained, the question natu- 
rally arose, ' Is pauperism hereditary ? ' A search in 
the records of the, town agent's office, so far as they 
go, has been made at leisure times by Clerk Zunder, 
and the result is a confirmation of the theory so often 
advanced by thinkers, that pauperism, like other 
crimes — for pauperism is in many cases little less than 
a crime — is hereditary, and the number of cases where, 
pauper parents transmitted their pauperism to the 
children is something astonishing to one not familiar 
with the intricacies of social science." 



TRAMPS. 485 

Many very interesting essays and pamphlets have 
been written by men who have made the history of 
crime a study; and a similar research into the causes 
of pauperism would undoubtedly result in much good„ 
showing to the managers of charities and town au- 
thorities the whys and wherefores of the increase of 
pauperism, and perhaps also give them hints as to the 
best way in which to prevent and cure it. 

Here in this city the theory that pauperism is 
hereditary has been acted upon to a certain extent by 
the managers of our local charities, and their efforts 
have*been directed towards effecting a cure, if possible. 
Their method is to induce all who spring from pauper 
parents to work and learn habits of industry. If they 
are assisted by either the town or the local charities, it 
is almost certain that they will always depend upon 
them for support, and will not work for a living unless 
they are forced to do so. 

The investigations in the town agent's office show 
that a large number of the people in the alms-house 
and out of it, who are weekly recipients of the town's 
charity, and who also receive aid from the central office 
or charitably disposed persons, are sons and daughters 
of parents who were either town paupers or supported 
by charity. In some cases only one parent was sup- 
ported by outside aid, and then it has been the case 
that the children who most nearly resemble the pauper 
parent were paupers, while those resembling the 
industrious parent were industrious children. 

The results of pauperism, connubial infelicities and 
family troubles, which bring about such disagreements 



486 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

as result in crimes of a greater or less degree, are 
almost invariably transmitted to future generations, 
and the researches show this to be the fact in nine 
cases out of ten. This is even found to be the fact in 
several cases that have come to light, when the 
children were not aware of the fact that their progeni- 
tors were dependent on charity. The taint of pau- 
perism runs in the blood, and must be educated out of 
the system, or else it can never be conquered. 

Another fact has been discovered by the researches, 
and one that is universal and indisputable. A child of 
pauper parents never makes a good father or mother, 
and a marriage between two of that class is absolutely 
certain to result in abject misery, an unhappy union, 
squalid poverty, and usually a large family, that has to 
be supported by charity. The homes of such families 
are no homes at all ; and in the light of these facts it 
seems almost a criminal matter to unite in the bonds 
of wedlock parties who spring from such a diseased 
root. 

It is a row of empty houses that gets its windows 
broken ; and empty heads, empty hearts and idle hands 
are sure to come to grief. A lazy boy makes a lazy 
man, just as sure as a crooked sapling makes a 
crooked tree. Who ever saw a boy grow up in idle- 
ness that did not make a shiftless vagabond when he 
became a man, unless he had a fortune left him to 
keep up appearances ? The great mass of thieves, 
criminals and paupers have come to what they are by 
being brought up in idleness. Those who constitute 
the business part of the community — those who make 



TRAMPS. 



487 



our great and useful men — were taught in their boy- 
hood to be industrious. 

A young man was recently found in the Mersey, 
drowned. On a paper found in his pocket was 
written: "A wasted life. Do not ask anything about 
me ; drink was the cause. Let me die ; let me rot." 
Within a week the coroner of Liverpool received over 
two hundred letters from fathers and mothers all over 
England, asking for a description of the young man. 

Some curious incidents now and then occur, con- 
nected with the lives of tramps. It would be a matter 
of great surprise, could the history be written of all 
those who make begging a "trade" and actually suc- 
ceed in accumulating large sums of money in this way. 
A ragged old tramp was arrested at Buffalo. When 
taken to the police station and subjected to the cus- 
tomary search, he resisted furiously. His reason was 
apparent when three thousand two hundred and forty- 
two dollars in bonds and money was found sewed up 
in his clothes. 

A tramp asked for a meal at a residence in Colum- 
bus, Ohio. The head of the family said, " Get along, 
or I'll set the dog on you." The tramp bet that with- 
in five minutes he would be invited to eat of the best 
that the house afforded. He won, too, because he 
proved that he was a wandering son returned. 

The Christian pulpit has not been exempt from the 
depredations of these shiftless human beings. Many 
a poor, suffering congregation have been bored and 
wearied with the driveling efforts of some wandering 
tramp, who wearied of honest and earnest toil at home, 



488 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

has started out to draw subsistence from the flowers 
by the wayside. 

"Of all the agencies of destruction to which our 
churches are exposed, perhaps none do their work so 
swifty and thoroughly as unprincipled men calling 
themselves ministers." 

One of the characteristics of the persistent tramp 
is his rebellious affirmation of the afflicting hand of 
Providence. He thinks that God and man are arrayed 
against him and that his various afflictions are not at 
all the result of his own wrong doing. He ever has a 
flippant reason for the course he pursues. A well- 
known writer has said: "Afflictions sent by Providence 
melt the constancy of the noble-minded but confirm 
the obduracy of the vile. The same furnace that 
hardens clay liquefies gold ; and in the strong manifesta- 
tions of divine power Pharaoh found his punishment, 
but David his pardon." 



«°»-"+f»3» 



(©OWAI^DS. 

Cowards die many times before their deaths; 

The valiant never taste of death but once. — Shakespeate. 

Who has a word to say in praise of cowardice?' 
Does not the universal conscience condemn it? The 
coward is mean and unmanly. He has not the cour 
age to stand by his opinions. He is ready to become 
a slave. "Half of our virtue," says Homer, "is torn 
away when a man becomes a slave;" and "the other 



COWARDS. 489 

half," added Dr. Arnold, "goes when he becomes a 
slave broken loose." 

Yet it requires courage to deal with a coward. A 
foolish young man who quarreled with Sir Philip 
Sydney, and tried to provoke him to fight, went so far 
as to spit in his face. 

"Young man," said Sir Philip, "if I could as easily 
wipe your blood from my conscience as I can wipe 
this insult from my face, I would this moment take 
your life." This was noble courage. It is a lesson 
for every one ; how to bear and how to forbear. 

As to moral courage, I have very rarely met with 
the two o'clock in the morning courage. I mean 
unprepared courage, that which is necessary on an 
unexpected occasion, and which, in spite of the most 
unforeseen events, leaves full freedom of judgment and 
decision. Any coward can fight a battle when he's 
sure of winning, but give me the man who has pluck 
to fight when he's sure of losing. 

An unfortunate young man who felt that his life 
was no use whatever in this world, determined publicly 
to put an end to it. The man had cultivated his intel- 
lect, but nothing more. He had no idea of duty, virtue 
or religion. Being a materialist, he feared no here- 
after. He advertised that he would give a lecture and 
then shoot himself through the head. The admission to 
the lecture and the sensational conclusion was a dol- 
lar a head. The amount realized was to be appropri- 
ated partly to his funeral expenses, and the rest was to 
be invested in purchasing the works of three London 
materialists, which were to be placed in the town 



49° WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

library. The hall was crowded. A considerable sum 
of money was realized. After he had concluded his 
lecture he drew his Derringer and shot his brains out 
according to his promise. What a conclusion of an 
earthly life — rushing red-handed into the presence of 
his God! 

Perhaps this horrible deed was the result of vanity, 
or perhaps to make a sensation. His name would be 
in the papers. Everybody would be shouting about 
his courage. But it was cowardice far more than 
courage. It must have been disappointed vanity. 
Sheridan once said, "They talk of avarice, lust, ambi- 
tion, as great passions. It is a mistake ; they are 
little passions. Vanity is the great commanding 
passion of all. This excites the most heroic deeds, 
and impels to the most dreadful crimes. Save me 
from this passion, and I can defy the others. They 
are mere urchins, but this is a giant." 

General Paoli . once observed to Dr. Johnson that 
" men who have no opportunity of showing courage as 
to things in this life take death and futurity as objects 
on which to display it." Johnson answered, " That is 
mighty foolish affectation. Fear is one of the passions 
of human nature, of which it is impossible to divest it. 
You remember that the Emperor Charles V, when he 
read upon the tombstone of a Spanish nobleman, 
'Here lies one who never knew fear,' wittily said, 
4 Then he never snuffed a candle with his fingers.' " 

Fear is the root of many a so-called self-sacrifice. 
Weak natures find it so much easier to submit to a 
wrong than to fight against it. Less trouble also. 



COWARDS. 49I 

Many lazy women prefer getting their own way in an 
underhand, roundabout fashion, by humoring the weak- 
nesses of the men they belong to, instead of honor- 
ably and openly resisting them, when resistance be- 
comes necessary. That is, using the right — the only 
honest "right" — a woman has, of asserting her inde- 
pendent existence before God and men as a responsi- 
ble human being, who will neither be forced to do 
wrong herself, nor to see another do wrong, if she can 
help it. 

Yet how many women not only err themselves, but 
aid and abet error, knowing it to be such — under the 
compulsion of that weak fear of rrfan, which is called, 
or miscalled, " conjugal obedience." 

Miserable people are invariably weak and cowardly 
people. 

Oh, well for him whose will is strong, 
He suffers, but he will not suffer long ; 
He surfers, but he cannot suffer wrong." 

Of course not, because his firm will must in time 
shake off any suffering ; and because no amount of ex- 
ternally inflicted evil is to be compared to the evil 
which a man inflicts upon himself, by feebleness of 
purpose, by cowardly non-resistance to oppression, and 
by a general uncertainty of aims or acts. 

He who sees the right and cannot follow it; who 
loves all things noble, yet dare not fight against things 
ignoble in himself or others ; who is haunted by a high 
ideal of what he wishes to be, yet is forever falling 
shortof it, and torturedbythe consciousness thathedoes 
fall short of it, and that his friends are judging him, not 
unjustly, by what he is rather than by what he vainly 



49 2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

aims at being — this man is, necessarily, one of the un- 
happiest creatures living. One of the most harmful, 
too, since you can be on your guard against the down- 
right villain, but the aesthetic evil-doer, the theoreti- 
cally good and practically bad man, who has lofty as- 
pirations without performances, virtuous impulses and 
no persistence — against such a one you have no 
weapons to use. 

He disarms your resentment by exciting your pity; 
is forever crying, " Quarter, quarter !" and though you 
feel that he deserves none, that his weakness has in- 
jured yourself and others as much as any wickedness, 
still, out of pure compassion, you sheath your right- 
eous sword and let him escape unpunished. Up he 
rises, fresh as ever, and pursues his course, always sin- 
ning and always repenting, yet claiming to be judged 
not by the sin but the penitence ; continually and ob- 
stinately miserable, yet blind to the fact that half his 
misery is caused by himself alone. 

Nothing sinks a young man into low company, both 
of women and men, so surely as timidity and diffidence 
of himself. If he thinks that he shall not, he may 
depend upon it he will not, please. But with proper 
endeavors to please and a degree of persuasion that 
he shall, it is almost certain that he will. 

The following paragraph touches upon a phase of 
cowardice peculiarly American, and applicable to other 
parts of our country besides Chicago. It is said that 
New England is rapidly losing its native population 
and passing largely into the hands of a foreign popula- 
tion, mainly from this one cause alone : 



cowards. 493 

" Any one who studies the marriage license reports, 
cannot fail to observe the fewness of American names 
in that interesting record. They are chiefly Germans, 
Irish, Scandinavian, Bohemian, Polish and Swede. 
The census of 1890 and 1900 will have a new tale to 
tell about the national complexion of the population of 
Chicago. The people who are marrying are, more- 
over, of the working classes, as may be inferred from 
their residences, and they are, as a rule, young — from 
twenty to twenty-five years of age. Why do not a 
larger proportion of the young Americans marry? 
The reason is not far to seek. "Young America" 
spends all he earns on fancy clothes, cigars, amuse- 
ment tickets and drives. He is able to save nothing 
to get married on. He could not furnish a kitchen. 
The young lady he would perhaps wish for a wife is 
like himself in some respects; she is fond of fine cos- 
tumes, rich jewelry and expensive entertainments ; 
she must have a carriage every time she goes to a 
concert or the theatre. How can she think of marry- 
ing a young man on a salary less than five or ten 
thousand dollars a year? So the marriage licenses 
issue only to the steady folks who prefer happiness to 
gaudy show." 

Southern tells us that " Lying's a certain mark of 
cowardice." Every brave man shuns more than death 
the shame of lying. 

" I am in the habit," writes a sea-captain, " of read- 
ing the Scriptures to the crew. I have suffered much 
lately at sea, having been dismasted, and had all my 
boats washed away, a little to the westward of Cape 



494 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

Clear. I then had an opportunity of seeing who was 
trustworthy, and I found the most unprincipled men 
the most useless and the greatest cowards in this awful 
gale, and the Bible men altogether the reverse, most 
useful and courageous." 

The following reflections upon cowards in general 
will, we hope, be not inappropriate: A fawn one day 
said to her mother, " Mother, you are bigger than a 
dog, and swifter and better winded, and you have 
horns to defend yourself; how is it that your are so 
afraid of the hounds?" She smiled and said, "All 
this, my child, I know full well; but no sooner do I 
hear a dog bark, than somehow or other, my heels 
take me off as fast as they can carry me." 

It is said that a tall, stalwart Indian is often seen 
about the streets of Virginia City, dressed in calico, 
like a squaw. He is compelled by the Piutes to 
wear woman's clothes for cowardice shown in battle 
several years since. If all of us who have been 
cowards in the conflicts of life were compelled to wear 
calico, what a terrible figure prints would reach ! 

A coward in the field is like the wise man's fool, 
his heart is at his mouth, and he doth not know what 
he does profess ; but a coward in his faith is like a fool 
in his wisdom ; his mouth is in his heart, and he dare 
not profess what he does know. I had rather not 
know the good I should do than not do the good I 
know. It is better to be beaten with few stripes than 
many. 



SPONGING. 495 



Sponging. 

Some cynic has said that the world is divided into 
two classes, the Gullor and the Gullee. By this he 
means that one part of humanity lives by sponging on 
the other part. And when we see so large a class of 
people who make their living by devious ways, and 
who belong to that class of irresponsibles that cannot 
be trusted out of sight, we are disposed to agree with 
him. 

Young men abound, both in city and country, 
whose sole aim seems to be to get something for no- 
thing; to fasten themselves upon some one who can 
carry them; to suck their substance, like the leech, 
from the blood of honest and hard working men. Nor 
is it men alone who are guilty of this dastardly practice. 
Good looking, apparently well-bred and plausible 
women swell the ranks of these adventurers. 

These people are always loud in their assertions 
of willingness to work hard ; fervent in their profes- 
sions of friendship; urgent in their desire for a fair 
trial; plausible in their excuses for failing to perform 
their duties. When you indignantly remonstrate with 
them for deceiving you, their angry denial is tempered 
with grief that you should so misunderstand them, and 
their hints of power to injure you, if not utterly crush 
you, is so covered with honeyed words and fair 
promises as to lull the suspicion even of a Solomon, 
and win gold from the pockets of a miser. 



496 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

This class of spongers includes the clerk who 
neglects to attend to little items of business in his 
employer's absence; who spends time in business 
hours to gossip and flirt with his lady friends, and 
rushes through his allotted work in a hasty and care- 
less manner, that he may attend an evening soiree. It 
includes the traveling agent who keeps his hotel room 
because it is disagreeable out-of-doors, or he feels 
blue, when he ought to be on the street driving his 
business with enthusiasm. It includes all those men 
who occupy positions of trust and confidence, who fail 
to render the full amount of service for which they are 
paid, drawing salaries that they do not fully earn. It 
includes the hired helper, who stands about, doing 
nothing, waiting to be set at work, when he knows 
there are many odds and ends of work waiting for his 
hands; but he is too careless and indifferent to think 
them up and set himself at them. In fact sponging is 
a fine art when practiced to perfection. 

The world owes you a living, does it ? Then I will 
tell you what I would do. I would go to work and 
collect the debt as soon as possible, before it gets out- 
lawed. I have noticed that it makes very little differ- 
ence how much men owe me, if I do not attend closely 
to the business of collecting. There are men who owe 
me enough to make me richer than I have any prospect 
of being, but the trouble is, they do not seem likely to 
pay ; and I am of the opinion that the world is very 
much like them in this respect. 

I will tell you what I would do, if I thought the 
world owed me a living. I would get me a hoe and 



SPONGING. 497 

go out somewhere where I could get a good chance at 
the world, and commence to dig and drop in a few 
seeds here and there, as I had opportunity ; and I 
think if the world really owed me a living, by sticking 
close to it with my hoe, I could collect the debt in the 
course of the season. This seems the readiest way I 
can think of to collect what the world owes. The fact 
is, there are so many creditors of this kind who claim 
that the world owes them a living, that some of them 
will lose their debts as sure as fate, if they do not 
begin early and work hard to collect their claims. The 
world is no doubt able to pay, provided it can have 
time. It generally takes the world about six months 
to get around after the claims are presented and vigor- 
ously hoed in; but the man who delays and dallies 
about the matter will find that, while the world may 
owe him a living, other people will have collected their 
claims before him, and there will be nothing left when 
he comes. 

"The sluggard will not plough by reason of the 
cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have 
nothing." 

Take your hands out of your pockets, young man. 
You are losing time. Time is valuable. People feel 
it at the other end of the line when death is near and 
eternity is pressing them into such small quarters, for 
the work of this life craves hours, days, weeks, years. 
If those at this end of the line, if youth with its abun- 
dance of resources would only feel that time was pre- 
cious. Time is a quarry. Every hour may be a nugget 
of gold. It is time in whose invaluable moments we 

32 



49$ WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

build our bridges, spike the iron rails to the sleepers, 
launch our ships, dig our canals, run our factories. 
You might have planted twenty hills of potatoes while 
I have been talking to you, young man. Take your 
hands out of your pockets. 

The world wants those hands. The world is alive, 
wide awake, pushing, struggling, going ahead. The 
world wants those hands. You need not take them 
out of America. They can find a market here at home. 
The country wants those hands, selling dry-goods in 
New York, cradling wheat in Minnesota, raising cotton 
in Alabama, weaving cloth in Lowell, picking oranges 
in Florida, digging gold in Colorado, catching mackerel 
from the deck of a down-east, fishing-smack. Take 
your hands out of your pockets. 

And what a laudable thing it is to meet the wants 
of society and do your best! When you are an old 
man, what an honorable thing your hand will be ! 

Did you ever think of the dignity investing the 
wrinkled hand of an old worker ? It has been so use- 
ful, lifted so many burdens and wrought in such honor- 
able service. Who wants a hand without a character 
when old age comes — a soft, flabby, do-nothing hand ? 

You are willing to work, you say, but can't find 
anything to do? 

Nothing to do ! Do the first thing that comes 
along. Saw wood, get in coal, go on errands. In 
short, do anything honest with your hands, but don't 
let them loaf in your pockets. 

The loudest beggars are often the least needy. 
Sturdy impudence fattens on misdirected charity, while 



SPONGING. 499 

honest poverty hides in garrets, and suffers and pines 
alone. Christians need to be " of quick understand- 
ing in the fear of the Lord," and full of ready, yet cau- 
tious sympathy for the suffering and distress which 
honest people often strive to conceal. Careless 
charity may give a crust or a shilling to every impor- 
tunate impostor that comes to the door, but " pure re- 
ligion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, 
to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, 
and to keep himself unspotted from the world."' 
Personal visitation is the safeguard against deceptions 
and shams, and this, and this only, enables us to be 
sure that our gifts are a blessing rather than a curse.. 

The interesting old Flemish city of Bruges, which 
in the height of its prosperity had a population of 
some two hundred thousand souls, has, since the san- 
guinary persecutions under Phillip II, been gradually 
declining in wealth and numbers, so that at present 
it does not possess one-fourth the population it had 
three centuries ago. The population of the city 
which in 1869 numbered forty-seven thousand six 
hundred and twenty-one, fell to forty-four thousand 
nine hundred and fifty in 1877. The lethargy of the 
inhabitants is attributed to the effect of the numberless 
convents and the richly endowed benevolent institu- 
tions, which, by perpetually supplying the wants of 
large numbers of the inhabitants without any exertion 
on their part, have tended to deprive them of that 
energy and spirit of independence which are indis- 
pensable to success in commercial life. 

Some rather amusing things occur in connection 



500 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

with this undercurrent of sponging, so prevalent in 
all grades of modern civilized society. "Will you 
settle that old account of yours this morning? " said a 
colonist. "No, sir; you are mistaken in the man. I 
am not one of the old settlers." But this incident has 
its reprehensible as well as amusing side: On Thanks- 
giving day the thirty-five girls employed by a clothing 
firm in Boston presented the two members of the firm 
with a handsome album which cost twenty-two dollars. 
The presentation ceremonies occupied about half an 
hour, which was deducted from their pay. 

Having entered a pew, move along ; be sure and 
move along. Do not block up the end of the pew as 
if you did not intend to have anybody else to enter it, 
or as if you were holding it for some special friends. 
Do not rise to let others in ; but move along and leave 
the pew invitingly open, so that they will know they 
are welcome. If a pew holding six has five already in 
it, do not file out in formal procession to let one poor, 
scared woman go to the further end, but move along 
and let her sit down at the end next the aisle. It is 
not necessary now for a stalwart man to sit at the end 
ready to rush out and kill Indians, as possibly it was 
once. 

A business has grown into formidable dimensions, 
within a few years, in London, which it is impossible 
to regard with complacency. " Private Inquiry " offices 
are an invention to the credit of which England is per- 
fectly welcome ; and we devoutly hope that nobody'on 
this side of the water will either copy or infringe upon 
their peculiarities. They employ great numbers of 



SPONGING. 5OI 

young men and women, nominally engaged as house- 
servants, clerks and so on, who collect and communi- 
cate to a central office all the gossip, scandal and per- 
sonalities that they can pick up. This information, in 
vast quantities, is carefully recorded and tabulated. 
This information, these family secrets obtained by in- 
famous bribery and espionage, are for sale. To these 
offices a husband or a wife proceeds in search of evi- 
dence, when thinking of applying for a divorce. 
Thither, also, go morbid wretches in search of food for 
jealousy ; partners who doubt each other ; employers 
who suspect their agents. 

The loafer who sponges a meal is mean, but the 
man who grudges to pay for the gospel is meaner. 
There is something, best called " religiosity," perhaps, 
which takes very small account of the decalogue. A 
kind of sniffling sentimentality called Christianity, by 
some, goes hand in hand with studied rascality. A 
man, and white men do it, sings loud and blubbers in 
" meetin, " while he is deep in plots to rob his neighbors 
— not with false keys, but with false weights, false rep- 
resentations, or false promises. Our same stalwart 
defender of the faith crams his pockets with other peo- 
ple's money, and covers it all with his splendid services 
to the cause of truth. Nor is this the worst of it ; 
churches and Christians knowing of the deflections 
from the straight paths of honesty, condone the 
offenses because the offender shoots the devil with gos- 
pel bullets, or scalps some other sect with the two- 
edged sword. Christianity needs to be cleared of 
such things. An unloading of the dishonest element 



502 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

would give Christianity a standing which it can never 
have while religiosity is allowed to cover a multitude 
of sins. Out with that religion which does not make 
men honest. And out with men who serve the Lord 
with dirty hands and pockets crammed with other peo- 
ples' money. Let ministers preach on honesty, and 
faithfully deliver the word of the Lord on the subject. 

Asa nation of professed Christian people, we of 
America have the most unenviable of reputations as 
"spongers." We sponge at home and we sponge abroad. 
The individual sponges from his neighbor, the officer 
from his government, and the government in return 
from its subjects. Our government also, has practiced 
the most fraudulent ways in obtaining property from 
other peoples and governments ; witness our transac- 
tions with China, and with the aboriginal races of our 
continent. It has been stated on high authority, that 
not a single treaty has been made with the Indians by 
our government during the past seventy years that 
we have not shamelessly broken. The following para- 
graph taken from a late work may not be out of place : 

Men, even savage men, judge each other by their 
deeds, not by their words. Professing Christians, like 
venders of bad coinage, often expose genuine religion 
to suspicion. " In true kindness of heart," said Dr. 
Guthrie, " sweetness of temper, open-handed gener- 
osity, the common charities of life, many mere men of 
the world lose nothing by comparison with such pro- 
fessors ; and how are you to keep the world from say- 
ing, ' Ah ! your man of religion is no better than others ; 
nay, he is sometimes worse ? ' With what frightful 



SPONGING. 503 

prominence does this stand out in the never-to-be- 
forgotten answer of an Indian chief to the missionary 
who urged him to become a Christian. The plumed 
and painted savage drew himself up in the conscious- 
ness of superior rectitude, and with indignation quiver- 
ing on his lip and flashing in his eye, he replied, 
* Christian lie! Christian cheat! Christian steal, drink, 
murder! Christian has robbed me of my lands, and 
slain my tribe!' Adding, as he haughtily turned away, 
'The Devil, Christian! I will be no Christian!' Many 
such reflections teach us to be careful how we make a 
religious profession ! And having made the pro- 
fession, cost what it may, by the grace of God let us 
live up to it, and act it out." 

God has blessed one of the best Baptist laymen in 
this city with large means and a warm heart, but he 
has the everyday business cares that any two men 
might account sufficient to fill every working hour. 
Yet applications to help this, that and the other object 
flow in to him in streams. Persons that he never saw 
or heard of walk right in, to get money for one sort of 
thing and another. In one day last week nine men, 
representing churches in debt pressed their claims 
upon him, and besides these, four earnest solicitations 
of the same sort came by letter ! What name is to be 
given to this sort of thing? Is it an abuse, or is it a 
virtue ? If it is a virtue, we hope it will become a 
means of grace to our highly respected friend, but if 
it is an abuse of all that is good in propriety and self- 
respect, ought it not to be stopped, or be so modified 
that the number of drafts proposed to be made on a 



504 WELL-STRINGS OF TRUTH. 

Christian man's pocket or time in the city of New 
York shall not exceed one or two a day ? Thirteen in 
one day! Submissively to endure it a man needs 
nothing short of the faith of Abraham, the meekness 
of Moses, and the patience of Job all in himself. 

If, then, the man who sponges upon his fellow-man 
is so despicable, so low, how much worse in the sight 
of that great Benefactor, who is the greatest of friends, 
must our actions appear, who take from his hands 
time, talents, money, happiness, and render little or 
nothing in return ? How must we appear to the 
angels and the Heavenly Host, who are thus con- 
stantly sponging in spiritual matters, taking all we can 
get, but giving little, if anything, back. 

Shining. 

An old writer says : " The road to hell is paved with good resolutions." 

Every man must work at somethiug. The moment he stops working for 
himself the devil employs him. 

The genius who is to invent a practical substitute for work has not yet been 
born - and never will be. 

Procrastination has been called the thief — the 
thief of time. I wish he was no more than a thief. 
He is a murderer, and that which he kills is not time 
merely, but the immortal soul. 

The reason why some men get along so slowly in this 
world is because they spend two thirds of their time 
talking about what they are going to do, and during 
the other third they have to sleep. 



SHIRKING. 505 

God does not want lazy men to do his work. If 
you hope ever to be put at some grand work 
worthy of what you think your talents are, you must 
keep busy doing something which is useful. Loafing 
is contemptible in any view, and religious loafing is the 
most contemptible of all. There is no one who can- 
not find as much as he can do if he will but do what 
his hands find to do — not what his eyes are looking 
for away off yonder in the distance. 

There is a great work for to-day. What we do will 
stay done, and will tell grandly on the ages to come. 
What we leave undone will breed confusion and disas- 
ter, and our children and children's children will justly 
hold us responsible for not laying hold on the oppor- 
tunities afforded us. Worship is easier than obedi- 
ence. Men are ever readier to serve the priest than 
to obey the prophet, and sacerdotalism flourished in 
Israel, while prophecy decayed and died. 

It is impossible for a man to be careless in his 
business affairs, or unmindful of his business obliga- 
tions, without being weak or rotten in his personal 
obligations. Show me a man who never pays his 
notes when they are due, and who shuns the payment 
of his bills when it is possible, and does both things as 
a habit, and I shall show you a man whose moral char- 
acter is beyond all question bad. We have had great 
men whose business habits were simply scandalous — 
who never paid their bills unless urged and worried, 
and who expended for their personal gratification 
every cent of money they could lay their hands upon. 
These delinquencies have been apologized for as 



506 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

among the eccentricities of genius, or as the unmind- 
fulness of small affairs which naturally attends all 
greatness of intellect and intellectual efforts ; but the 
world has been too easy with them altogether. I 
could name great men — and the names of some of 
them arise before the readers of this essay — who are 
atrociously dishonest. I care not how many amiable 
and admirable traits they possess. They are dis- 
honest and untrustworthy in their business relations, 
and that simple fact condemns them. 

He who puts off the performance of duty shows 
that he has no heart to perform it. Cultivate the 
habit of promptly doing what conscience calls thee to 
do. The opposite habit of putting off and shirking 
comes by nature, like weeds in our gardens ; and if 
the soil remains unbroken by good efforts, will over- 
shadow and kill out all the good within us. As the 
little mountain brook, gurgling over its stony bed, may 
be easily turned aside to a new channel ; so the selfish 
love of ease that first prompts' to shirk a duty may be 
turned into the channel of pleasure at duties well 
performed. But the mountain stream, as it broadens 
into a mighty river, is no easier turned aside than the 
wretched habit of shirking, when once it takes posses- 
sion of a human soul. 

There is a striking moral in Lessing's fable of the 
" Dying Wolf." A wolf lay at his last gasp, and was 
reviewing his past life. " It is true, " he said, " I am a 
sinner, but yet I hope not one of the greatest ; I have 
done evil, but I have also done much good. Once I 
remember a bleating lamb, that had strayed from the 



SHIRKING. 507 

flock, came so near me that I might easily have 
throttled it ; but I did it no harm ! " " I can testify to 
that, " said his friend the fox, who was helping him to 
prepare for death, " I remember perfectly all the cir- 
cumstances. It was just at the time when you were 
so dreadfully choked with that bone in your throat." 

A missionary meeting had been held in some town 
in Canada, and into this town, to the meeting, trudged 
a farmer and his son Sammy. It was a walk of some 
seven miles, after a long day's work, too ; but the far- 
mer did not mind. His heart was given to the Lord, 
and he had made many a sacrifice to send the good 
news of a Saviour to others. During the meeting the 
speakers pleaded the necessity for more money and 
more helpers in the Lord's work. The farmer's heart 
was stirred; even Sammy, who did not love Jesus, felt 
a little moved and uneasy. 

The meeting ended, and their walk home was in 
silence for more than a mile. Then the farmer said : 

" Sammy, I think — no, I will — give up coffee ! " 

Sammy's answer was a short grunt ; he did not 
like this giving tip at all. 

Two miles passed in silence, then the farmer broke 
it by asking — 

" What'll you give up, Sammy? " 

A very uncomfortable question for Sammy, meet- 
ing with a shorter grunt. The darkness hid the signs 
of Sammy's inward conflict. 

Just before they got home, Sammy spoke — 

" Father, I've found something to give up." 



508 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

"That's right, my boy," heartily responded the 
farmer. " What is it ? " 

" Well, I guess I can give up pickled mackerel, 
'cause I don't like it a bit." 

Alas! alas! what a large number of "Sammys" 
there are in the world! They give unto the Lord what 
costs them nothing, and it takes them a deal of time to 
find out anything they like little enough to spare for 
him. What are you giving up for Jesus ? And which 
are you, Sammy or the farmer ? 

The great difficulty with Christian manhood is, that 
it is too much deformed. Some are without arms ; 
they have never helped one over the rugged places in 
life. Some are without feet ; they have never gone an 
inch out of their way to serve others. Some are voice- 
less ; they have never, even by word, encouraged any 
one who was cast down. Some are deaf; they have 
never listened to the voice of suffering. Some are 
without hearts ; they do not know what sympathy and 
generous feeling are. What an appearance a proces- 
sion of such characters would make, if they could be 
seen as they are on the street! What an appearance 
a crippled Christian makes in the light of heaven ! 

Talleyrand, the prince of French diplomatists, long 
denied the doctrine of deathless retribution as the 
result of a life of sin. But as he confronted things 
eternal, he said to his kingly friend, Louis Philippe, 
" Sire, I suffer already the pangs of the damned." 

These so-called Christians have always plenty of 
arguments on their side ; especially the parable of the 
Prodigal Son, and the "joy in heaven over one sinner 



SHIRKING. 509 

that repenteth." But they forget that the prodigal 
when his father met him was no longer a prodigal : he 
had forsaken his evil ways, never to return to them 
more. Also that the "joy " is supposed to be over a 
repentant sinner, not a sinner who still remains in sin. 
Christ, in his divinest charity, never does more for of- 
fenders than to pardon them until they cease to offend. 
"Go," he says; " go and sin no more, lest a worse 
thing happen unto thee." But for those who continue 
to sin, there is, even according to the quoters £>{ Holy 
Writ — often so egregiously twisted and misap- 
plied— -a worse thing ; even as in the parable of the 
fig-tree : " Cut it down ; why cumbereth it the ground?" 
And sometimes the kindest, wisest, most Christian act 
is — to let it be cut down. 

For instance, everyone who gives money to a con- 
firmed drunkard or profligate, thereby encouraging 
him in his vices ; every one who, for any reason, how- 
ever compassionate, speaks what is called "a good 
word " for a person whom he knows to be bad, condones 
sin, and is guilty of the result that follows. His lazy 
laxity allows these cumberers of the ground to take 
the life from wholesome trees. And, even as a man 
who sits with his hands folded, and allows his humble 
neighbors to wallow in dirt like pigs, saying, " I can't 
help it ; it is not my affair," may one day have to see 
ghastly fever, bred in those back slums, stalk in at his 
own front door, and carry off his best-beloved child ; so 
any one who laughs at error as mere " folly," and puts 
a plaster upon ugly sin, connives dangerously at both. 
He has shirked what was unpleasant ; he has been too 



5IO WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

lazy to take trouble ; he has done his benevolence in 
the easiest way. He may yet have to pay for his mis- 
taken mercy by being ground under the ever-moving 
wheel of an unerring justice ; justice which, though 
it does not always reward, assuredly knows the way to 
punish. 

Many Christians would like to labor for the salva- 
tion of men if they could do it on a magnificent scale ; 
if they could have a great tabernacle with five thousand 
people inside, and as many more trying to get in ; if they 
could preach like Apollos, and sing like David with his 
harp of solemn sound; if they could spread a big net like 
Simon Peter, and haul in a hundred and fifty-three 
great fishes at once, and have the story reported in the 
newspapers and proclaimed upon the housetops, they 
would be very well content. But they are not willing 
to toil in obscurity, and patiently wait for the Master 
to reveal their work in the last day. Jesus never 
shirked a duty, nor sought for thanks from those he 
healed. 



CQisei^ibs op Sin. 

Fancy runs most furiously when a guilty conscience drives it. 

Thomas Fuller. 

The following words, as they fell from the lips of 
one of the most gifted men the world ever knew, can 
but feebly portray the vividness of his picture, pre- 
sented to the ears of his hearers : 

" In executing a scene descriptive of its abomina- 
tions, methinks the acute conception of fancy, and the 



MISERIES OF SIN. 511 

loftiest flights of the imagination, would be inadequate 
to the task. Could we change the mighty ocean to 
paint, transform every stick into a brush, make every 
man an artist, every star a scaffold, and the out- 
stretched, boundless sky a canvas ; could we take the 
dismal clouds for shade, the frightful lightnings for 
tinge, the midnight's darkness for drapery and gloom ; 
could we use the doleful winds for sighs, the countless 
drops of rain for tears ; the broken music of the howl- 
ing storm for wails, for shrieks and cries, the earthquake's 
violent shock for agonizing pain, and the long, loud 
rumbling thunder for piteous, dying groans ; and could 
we, with pious Joshua, command the glowing sun to 
stand still in the west, and the full, blushing moon in 
the east, and there wait while laboring artists dash the 
amazing horrors of sin on the expanding sheet, to 
delineate all its loathsome, horrible and everlasting 
effects, would quite exhaust the ocean, wear out every 
instrument, tire every artist, and more than fill heaven's 
immeasurable blue from pole to pole." 

Ages of unutterable woe shall have passed, and the 
agonizing shrieks of the lost are reverberating through 
the fiery vaults of hell : " Tell me, ye companions of 
iniquity, how long shall I endure this torture ? " Eter- 
nity ! eternity ! " Tell me, thou spirit of my sainted 
mother, thou, whose prayers, fervent and anxious, I 
disregarded, whose counsels I rejected, how long, O 
how long shall I suffer this dreadful punishment? 
Always consuming, but never consumed, always dying, 
but never to die !" Eternity 1 eternity! eternity! 

Millions of years shall again have inflicted their 



512 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

allotted portion of misery, and the wailings of despair 
and supplications are yet reverberating : " Tell me, O 
God, whose love I spurned, whose wrath I willfully 
enkindled, is there no mercy in heaven ? All, all I ask 
is annihilation." " Ye knew your duty, but ye did 
it not ! " is the response of Him who has promul- 
gated to the world, "The wages of sin is eternal 
death." 

Sin is like a river with a strong current, and the 
farther you go down stream, the less likely it is that 
you will ever return. To sin against knowledge is a 
much greater crime than an ignorant trespass ; as the 
crime which is capable of no excuse is more heinous 
than the fault which admits of a tolerable plea. Sin 
may be defined as the mistaken pursuit of happiness. 
Transgressions of the Divine law constitute not merely 
the sin and sorrow of the individual, but the sin and 
sorrow of nations. Outside of Christianity, neither 
prosperity nor freedom will ever be lasting. 

A single evil will expand itself and usurp the place 
of much good. A tooth is a little thing, but its aching 
shuts out the light of sun and stars, the songs of birds, 
the joy of a household, the wealth of a continent, the 
power of a kingdom. A guilty conscience drowns the 
joy of the most fortunate man, and plunges in misery 
the one who otherwise would be the happiest of mor- 
tals. 

Every commission of sin introduces into the soul a 
certain degree of hardness, and an aptness to continue 
in that sin. Sin taken into the soul is like a liquor 
poured into a vessel ; so much as it fills it also sea- 



MISERIES OF SIN. 513 

sons. The touch and tincture go together. So that, 
although the body of the liquor be poured out again, 
yet still it leaves that tang behind it which makes the 
vessel fitter for that than any other. In like manner 
every act of sin strangely transforms and works over 
the soul to its own likeness. 

Every commission of sin imprints upon the soul a 
further disposition and proneness to sin, as the second, 
third and fourth degrees of heat are more easily in- 
troduced than the first. Drinking both quenches the 
present thirst and provokes it for the future. When 
the soul is beaten from its first station, and the mounds 
and outworks of virtue are once broken down, it be- 
comes quite another thing from what it was before. 
In one single eating of the forbidden fruit, when the 
act is over, yet the relish remains ; and the remem- 
brance of the first repast is an easy allurement to the 
second. One visit is enough to begin an acquaintance ; 
and this point is gained by it, that when the visitant 
comes again he is no more a stranger. 

Nine tenths of the vices and miseries of the world 
proceed from idleness. Without work there can be 
no active progress in human welfare. No more in- 
sufferable misery can be conceived than that which 
must follow incommunicable privileges. Imagine an 
idle man condemned to perpetual youth, while all 
around him decay and die. How sincerely would he 
call upon death for deliverance ! 

But conscience is not dead. We cannot dig a 
grave for it, and tell it to lie there. We may trample 
it under foot, but it still lives. Every sin or crime has, 



5 H WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

at the moment of its perpetration, its own avenging 
angel. We cannot blind our eyes to it or stop our 
ears to it. " 'Tis conscience that makes cowards of us 
all." There comes a day of judgment, even in this 
world, when it stands up confronting us, and warning 
us to return to the life of well-doing. 

Bees kill themselves by stinging. Sinners do like- 
wise. There is many a man in the world who never 
committed but one act of folly, and who won't get to 
the end of it until he dies. Evil society is the death 
of piety. 

He that hath tasted the bitterness of sin will fear 
to commit it; and he that hath felt the sweetness of 
mercy will fear to offend it. There are three things 
which the true Christian desires with respect to sin : 
Justification, that it may not condemn ; sanctification, 
that it may not reign ; and glorification, that it may 
not be. 

Perhaps the cause of more misery than any other 
one thing in this world is the curse of drunkenness. 
But there are so many grades in peoples' estimations 
of what constitutes drunkenness, that it would not be 
any safer to put the limit as to where drunkenness 
begins, after the first drink is taken, than to state 
where it ends, this side of the grave. 

Dr. Guthrie says : " I have heard the wail of chil- 
dren crying for bread, and the mother had none to 
give them. I have seen the babe pulling breasts as 
dry as if the starved mother had been dead. I have 
known a father turn a step-daughter into the street at 
night, bidding the sobbing girl who bloomed into 



MISERIES OF SIN. 515 

womanhood earn her bread as others were doing. I 
have bent over the foul pallet of a dying lad to hear 
him whisper, and his father and mother, who were 
sitting half drunk by the fireside, had pulled the 
blankets off his body to sell them for drink. I have 
seen the children blanched like plants growing in a 
cellar — for weeks they never breathed a mouthful of 
fresh air, for want of rags to cover their nakedness ; 
and they lived in continual terror of a drunken father 
or mother coming home to beat them. I do not recol- 
lect of ever seeing a mother in these wretched dwell- 
ings dandling her infant, or hearing the little creature 
crow or laugh. These are some of drink's doings ; 
but nobody can know the misery I suffered amid those 
scenes of wretchedness, woe, want and sin." 

Only a few years ago, the mistress of one of the 
finest mansions in a suburban town, after ruining her- 
self and breaking the heart of her husband, and scat- 
tering her fortune, was lost to her family for years ; 
and was finally restored to them — a poor comfort — 
from the Boston police court, whither she had been 
taken as a vagrant and a common drunkard! 

Within a year, the granddaughter of one of our 
presidents, once a beauty and a belle in Washington, 
long estranged from and finally lost by her family, 
died in the garret of a wretched tenement house in 
Sullivan street, New York. Is there no danger for 
our girls, as well as for our boys ? 



5l6 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 



I2?L(EASU^ES OP ©IBTY. 

Oh, who could brave life's stormy doom, 

Did not Thy wing of love 
Come brightly wafting through the gloom 

Our prayer branch from above ? 

Then sorrow, touched by Thee, grows bright 

With more than rapture's ray ; 
As darkness shows us worlds of light 

We never saw by day. THOMAS MOORE. 

" Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see 
God.'* This text should be one of the guiding mot- 
toes of our lives. Pure in heart means a great deal. 
It means such a hatred of everything impure that not 
even wicked thoughts will be admitted. Or if they 
find their way in for a moment, they will not be allowed 
to remain. The promise is they shall "see God," that 
does not mean in the next life only, but in this world : 
the pure in heart learn to know a deep, rich meaning 
concerning things hidden to others. Blessed indeed 
are they who follow him so closely that they can see 
God! 

Let it not be imagined that the life of a good 
Christian must necessarily be a life of melancholy and 
gloominess ; for he only resigns some pleasures to 
enjoy others infinitely better. Those who hope for no 
other life are dead even for this. The Bible without 
the Spirit is a sun-dial by moonlight. Human things 
must be known in order to be loved. Divine things 
must be loved in order to be known. If the way to 
heaven be narrow, it is not long; and if the gate be 
straight, it opens into endless life. 



PLEASURES OF PIETY. 517. 

Sometimes God puts such wonderful sweetness 
into the doing of, or the refraining from, some little 
thing for his sake, that we wonder what makes us so 
happy about it, and be conscious that it is not exactly 
one's mere natural feeling ; is it not a precious ex- 
perience of great reward? 

A good conscience is to the soul what health is to 
the body; it preserves a constant ease and serenity 
within us, and more than countervails all the calami- 
ties and afflictions that can possibly befall us. 

How independent of money peace of conscience is, 
and how much happiness can be condensed in the 
humblest homes. 

Duty that is bought is worth little. " I consider," 
said Dr. Arnold, "beyond all wealth, honor, or even 
health, is the attachment due to noble souls ; because 
to become one with the good, generous and true, is to 
he in a manner, good, generous, and true yourself. 
Every man has a service to do, to himself as an indi- 
vidual, and to those who are near him. In fact, life is 
of little value unless it be consecrated by earnest, 
pious actions." 

Jesus Christ is the most certain, the most sacred 
the most glorious, of all facts ; arrayed in a beauty and 
majesty which throws the " starry heavens above us " 
into obscurity, and fills us truly with ever-growing 
reverence and awe. He shines forth with the self- 
evidencing light of the noonday sun. He is too great, 
too pure, too perfect, to have been invented by any sin- 
ful and erring man. His character and claims are 
confirmed by the sublimest doctrine, the purest ethics,. 



518 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

the mightiest miracles, the grandest spiritual kingdom, 
and are daily and hourly exhibited in the virtues and 
graces of all who yield to the regenerating and sancti- 
fying power of His spirit and example. 

The historical Christ meets and satisfies all our in- 
tellectual and moral wants. The soul, if left to its 
noblest impulses and aspirations, instinctively turns to 
Him k as the needle to the magnet, as the flower to the 
sun, as the panting hart to the fresh fountain. We are 
made for Him, and our " heart is without rest until it rests 
in Him." He commands our assent, He wins our ad- 
miration, He overwhelms us with adoring wonder. We 
cannot look upon Him without spiritual benefit. We 
cannot think of Him without being elevated above all 
that is low and mean, and encouraged to all that is 
good and noble. The very hem of His garment is 
healing to the touch. One hour spent in His com- 
munion outweighs all the pleasures of sin. He is the 
mpst precious and indispensable gift of a merciful God 
to a fallen world. In Him are the treasures of true 
wisdom, in Him the fountain of pardon and peace, in 
Him the only substantial hope and comfort in this 
world and that which is to come. 

Mankind could better afford to lose the whole lit- 
erature of Greece and Rome, of Germany and France, 
of England and America, than the story of Jesus of 
Nazareth. Without Him history is a dreary waste, an 
Inextricable enigma, a chaos of facts without a mean- 
ing, connection and aim ; with Him it is a beautiful, 
harmonious revelation of God, the slow but sure un- 
folding of a plan of infinite wisdom and love. 



PLEASURES OF PIETY. 519 

Salvation is full of grace. Yet these things are 
required: "Let him that nameth the name of Christ 
depart from all iniquity." "Whosoever would be my 
disciple, let him take up his cross, deny himself daily, 
and follow me." "Ye cannot," says our Lord, "serve 
God and mammon." Shrink not from the pain these 
sacrifices must cost. It is not so great as many fancy. 
The joy of the Lord is His people's strength. Love 
has so swallowed up all sense of pain, and sorrow has 
been so lost in ravishment, that men took joyfully the 
spoiling of their goods, and martyrs went to the burn- 
ing stake with beaming countenances, and sang their 
death-song amid the roaring flames. 

Let us by faith rise above the world, and it will shrink 
into littleness and insignificance compared with Christ. 

Some while ago two aeronauts, hanging in mid-air, 
looked down to the earth from their balloon, and 
wondered to see how small great things had grown. 
Ample fields were contracted into small patches ; the 
lake was no larger than a looking-glass ; the broad 
river, with ships floating on its bosom, seemed like a 
silver thread ; the wide-spread city was reduced to the 
dimensions of a village ; the long, rapid, flying train 
appeared but a black caterpillar, slowly creeping over 
the surface of the ground. 

And such changes the world undergoes to the eyes 
of him who rises to hold communion with God, and 
anticipating the joy of heaven, lives above it and looks 
beyond it. This makes it easy and even joyful to part 
with all for Christ — "this is the victory that overcometh 
the world, even our faith." 



520 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

If a man were to travel through some dangerous 
wilderness, having but one jewel in all the world, in 
which his whole property consisted, and should hear 
some in one place, and some in another, crying out, 
under the hands of cruel robbers, O, in what fear 
would this traveler go, lest he should lose his jewel 
and be robbed of his all at once ! Why my friend, thou 
art the man — this traveler is thyself — this wilderness is 
the world — this jewel is thy soul. Thou hast to travel 
through crowds of sinners, legions of devils, and a 
whole world of temptations ; and if their utmost spite 
can keep thee out of heaven, thou shalt never come 
there. 

What if thy sins committed, thy duties neglected, 
thy pride and worldly-mindedness should at last betray 
thy soul into the robbers' hands; other losses may be 
retrieved ; but thy soul being lost — God is lost, Christ 
is lost, heaven is lost, all is lost, forevermore. Secure, 
then, the safety of this infinitely precious jewel — thy 
own immortal soul. Turn to the " stronghold," the 
"house of defense" the "city of refuge." Come unto 
Christ, who will save to the uttermost all that come 
unto God by him, and will preserve them "unto his 
heavenly kingdom." 

The man who carries a lantern in a dark night 
can have friends all around him, walking safely by the 
help of its rays, and he be not defrauded. So he who 
has the God-given light of hope in his breast can help 
on many others in this world's darkness, not to his own 
loss, but to his precious gain. 

See what a Christian is, drawn by the hand of 



PLEASURES OF PIETY. 52 1 

Christ. He is a man on whose clear and open brow 
God has set the stamp of truth ; one whose very eye 
beams bright with honor; in whose very look and 
bearing you may see freedom, manliness, veracity ; a 
brave man — a noble man — frank, generous, true, with, 
it may be, many faults; whose freedom may take the 
form of impetuosity or rashness, but the form of 
meanness never. Young men, if you have been 
deterred from religion by its apparent feebleness and 
narrowness, remember, it is a manly thing to be a 
Christian. 

Child of God, if you would have your thought of 
God something beyond a cold feeling of his presence, 
let faith appropriate Christ. You are as much the 
object of God's solicitude as if none lived but your- 
self. He has counted the hairs of your head. In Old 
Testament language, " He has put your tears into his 
bottle." He has numbered your sighs and your 
smiles. He has interpreted the desires for which you 
have not found a name nor an utterance yourself. If 
you have not learned to say, " My Redeemer," then 
just so far as there is anything tender or affectionate 
in your disposition, you will tread the path of your pil- 
grimage with a darkened and a lonely heart; and 
when the day of trouble comes there will be none of 
that triumphant elasticity which enabled Job to look 
down, as from a rock, upon the surges which were 
curling their crests of fury at his feet, but could only 
reach his bosom with their spent spray. 

There is a grand fearlessness in faith. He who in 
his heart of hearts reverences the good, the true, 



522 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

the holy — that is, reverences God — does not tremble 
at the apparent success of attacks upon the outworks 
of his faith. They may shake those who rested on 
those outworks — they do not move him whose soul 
reposes on the Truth itself. He needs no props or 
crutches to support his faith. He does not need to 
multiply the objects of his awe in order to keep dread- 
ful doubt away. Founded on a rock, faith can afford to 
gaze undismayed at the approaches of infidelity. 



Cvei^y Day Religion. 

The truly catholic spirit of Christianity accommo- 
dates itself, with an astonishing condescension, to the 
circumstances of the whole human race. It rejects 
none on account of their pecuniary wants, their per- 
sonal infirmities, or their intellectual deficiencies. No 
superiority of parts is the least recommendation, nor 
is any depression of fortune the smallest objection. 
None are too wise to be excused from performing the 
duties of religion, nor are any too poor to be excluded 
from the consolations of its promises. 

If we admire the wisdom of God in having fur- 
nished different degrees of intelligence so exactly 
adapted to their different destinations, and in having 
fitted every part of his stupendous work, not only to 
serve its own immediate purpose, but also to con- 
tribute to the beauty and perfection of the whole; how 
how much more ought we to adore that goodness which 



EVERY DAY RELIGION. 523 

has perfected the divine plan by appointing one wide, 
comprehensive and universal means of salvation ; a sal- 
vation of which all are invited to partake ; by a means 
which all are capable of using ; which nothing but 
voluntary blindness can prevent our understanding, 
and nothing but willful error can hinder us from em- 
bracing. 

The muses are coy and will only be wooed and won 
by some highly favored suitors. The sciences are 
lofty and will not stoop to the reach of ordinary ca- 
pacities. But " wisdom (by which the royal preacher 
means piety) is a loving spirit ; she is easily seen of 
them that love her, and found of all such as seek 
her." Nay, she is so accessible and condescending 
" that she preventeth them that desire her, making her- 
self first known to them." 

We are told by the same animated writer "that 
wisdom is the breath of the power of God." How 
infinitely superior in grandeur and sublimity is this 
description to the origin of the wisdom of the heathens, 
as described by their poets and mythologists. In the 
exalted strains of the Hebrew poet we read that " Wis- 
dom is the brightness of the everlasting light, the 
unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image 
of his goodness." 

A man must be an infidel either from pride, preju- 
dice or bad education ; he cannot be one unawares or 
by surprise ; for infidelity is not occasioned by sudden 
impulse or violent temptation. He may be hurried by 
some vehement desire into an immoral action, at which 
he will blush in his cooler moments, and which he will 



524 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

lament as a sad effect of a spirit unsubdued by religion; 
but infidelity is a calm, considerate act, which cannot 
plead the weakness of the heart or the seduction of 
the senses. Even good men frequently fail in their 
duties through the infirmities of nature and the allure- 
ments of the world ; but the infidel errs on a plan, on 
a fixed and deliberate principle. 

Nothing does so open our faculties, and compose 
and direct the whole man, as an inward sense of God ; 
of his authority over us; of the laws he has set us; of 
his eye ever upon us ; of his hearing our prayers, 
assisting our endeavors, watching over our concerns; 
and of his being able to judge, and to reward or punish 
us in another state, according to what we do 'in this. 
Nothing will give a man such a detestation of sin, and 
such a sense of the goodness of God, and of our 
obligations to holiness, as a right understanding and 
a firm belief of the Christian religion; nothing can 
give a man so calm a peace within, and such a firm 
security against all fears and dangers without, as the 
belief of a kind and wise providence and of a future 
state. An integrity of heart gives a man a courage 
and a confidence that cannot be shaken. A man is sure 
that, by living according to the rules of religion, he be- 
comes the wisest, the best and happiest creature that 
he is capable of being. Honest industry, the employ- 
ing of his time well, and a constant sobriety, an unde- 
fined purity and chastity, with a quiet serenity, are the 
best preservers of life and health; so that, take a man 
as a single individual, religion is his guard, his perfec- 
tion, his beauty and his glory. This will make him the 



EVERY DAY RELIGION. 525 

light of the world, shining brightly and enlightening 
many round about him. 

Life force may go into words or it may go into 
deeds. The power of steam may expend itself through 
the cylinder or through the whistle. Steady living, 
under the sweet pressure of genuine love for God, is 
vastly more eloquent than the most rhetorically sweet 
sounding declarations by the human voice. There 
may be a religion without words ; there can be none 
without deeds. The old proverb puts it well: "None 
preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing." 

A practical writer of the day gives us the following: 
"We want a religion that softens the step, and tones 
the voice to melody, and fills the eyes with sunshine, 
and checks the impatient exclamation and the harsh 
rebuke; a religion that is polite, deferential to superiors, 
courteous to inferiors, and considerate to friends; a 
religion that goes into the family, and keeps the 
husband from being spiteful when the dinner is late, 
and keeps the dinner from being late ; keeps the wife 
from fretting when the husband tracks the newly- 
washed floor with his muddy boots, and makes the 
husband mindful of the scraper and the door-mat; 
keeps the mother patient when the baby is cross; 
amuses the children as well as instructs them — wins 
as well as governs ; cares for the servants besides pay- 
ing them promptly ; looks after the apprentice in the 
shop, and the clerk behind the counter, and the student 
in the office, with a fatherly care and a motherly love; 
setting the solitary in families, and introducing them to 
pleasant and wholesome society, that their lonely feet 



526 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

may not be led into temptation. We want a religion 
that will hold intercourse continually between the ruts 
and gullies and rocks of the highway of life and the 
sensitive souls that are passing over them. 

" We want a religion that bears heavily, not only on 
the executive sinfulness of life, but the exceeding ras- 
cality of lying and stealing ; a religion that banishes 
short measures from the counter, small baskets from 
the stalls, pebbles from the cotton rags, clay from the 
paper, sand from sugar, beet-juice from vinegar, alum 
from bread, strychnine from wine, water from milk 
cans and buttons from the contribution box. The re- 
ligion that is to save the world will not put all the big 
strawberries at the top and the bad ones at the bot- 
tom. It will sell raisins on stems, instead of stems 
without raisins. It will not make one half of a 
pair of shoes of good leather and the other of poor, 
so that the first shall redound to the maker's credit, 
and the second to his cash ; nor, if the shoes be 
promised on Thursday morning, will it let Thursday 
morning spin out till Saturday night. It does not send 
the little boy who has come for the daily quart of milk 
into the barnyard to see the calf, and seize the op- 
portunity to skim off the cream ; nor does it sur- 
round stale butter with fresh, and sell the whole for 
good ; nor sell off the slack-baked bread upon the 
stable boy ; nor dust the pepper ; nor " deacon " the 
apples. 

"The religion that is to sanctify the world pays its 
debts. It does not borrow money with little or no 
purpose of repayment, but concealing or glossing over 



EVERY DAY RELIGION. 527 

the fact. It looks upon a man who has failed in trade 
and continues to live in luxury as a thief. It looks 
upon a man who promises to pay fifty dollars on de- 
mand, with interest, and who neglects to pay it on de- 
mand, with or without interest, as a liar." 

In brief, good works are the actions of a saved 
man, proving his salvation ! They hang upon the 
Christian life, somehow as fruit does on a living tree. 

"We often do more good," says Canon Farrar, 
" by our sympathy than by our labors, and render to the 
world a more lasting service by absence of jealousy 
and recognition of merit, than we could ever render by 
the straining efforts of personal ambition. A man may 
lose position, influence, wealth and even health, and 
yet live on in comfort, if with resignation ; but there 
is one thing without which life becomes a burden — that 
is human sympathy." 

It is true that kind actions are not always received 
with gratitude, but this ought never to turn aside the 
sympathetic helper. This is one of the difficulties to 
be overcome in our conflict with life. Even the most 
degraded is worthy of the mutual help which all men 
owe to each other. It should be remembered, as 
Bentham no less truly than profoundly remarked, that 
the happiness of the cruel man is as much an integral 
part of the whole human happiness as is that of the 
best and noblest of men. Then, again, a man cannot 
do good or evil to others without doing good or evil 
to himself. 

The opportunities of doing good come to all who 
work and will. The earnest spirit finds its way to the 



528 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

hearts of others. Patience and perseverance overcome 
all things. How many men, how many women, too, 
volunteer to die without the applause of men. They 
give themselves up to visiting the poor; they nurse 
the sick, suffer for them, and take the infectious dis- 
eases of which they die. Many a life has thus been 
laid down because of duty and mercy. They had no 
reward except that of love. Sacrifice, borne not for 
self but for others, is always sacred. 

We need a gospel for the poor, that shall go to 
them with food for the soul in one hand, and food for 
the body in the other. The religion of the helping 
hand is the only one that will save our great cities 
from relapsing into barbarism. We have no sym- 
pathy with cold-hearted religion. We want that which 
kindles the eye, and loosens the tongue, and draws out 
the purse-strings — a religion that makes its presence 
known, warming the hearts and lives of those who 
profess to possess it. 

The true test of any religion is the effect it pro- 
duces upon the lives of those who profess it. And, 
indeed, the test of real merit everywhere must be the 
power it possesses of accomplishing desirable results. 
In this age of the world men are not judged by what 
they claim to be able to do, but by what they can do ; 
not by what they are reputed to be, but by what they 
are. Here is where the religion of our own country 
rises superior to the faith of Mohammedan or Hindoo 
lands ; for while there is much hypocrisy in the church, 
and far too much worldliness, there is yet an absence 



EVERY DAY RELIGION. 529 

of those sensual and brutal elements which character- 
ize the religions of Arabia and the Ganges. 

Religion is a thing of love, and it will die if com- 
manded to be dumb. Instead of being content to live 
so as to escape blame, the Christian is required to live 
so as to prove a means of blessings. If religion is 
anything it is the whole of man's life; it is the car- 
riage of his soul and of his body ; it is the disposition 
of his time ; it is the whole being aright. 

Religion is not confined to devotional exercises, 
but rather consists in doing all we are called and quali- 
fied to do, with a single eye to God's glory and will, 
from a grateful sense of his mercy to us. This is the 
alchemy which turns everything into gold, and stamps 
a value upon common actions. Religion finds the 
love of happiness and the principles of duty separated 
in us ; and its mission, its masterpiece is to reunite 
them. God hears the heart without the words, but he 
never hears the words without the heart. 

Without prayer there is no such thing as religion ; 
all that is so called will melt away into nothingness if it 
is not concentrated and shaped into prayer. Cleanse 
thy morning soul with private and due devotions ; till 
then admit no business. The first-born of thy thoughts 
are God's, and not thine, but by sacrilege. Think 
thyself not ready till thou hast praised Him, and He 
will be always ready to bless thee. 

The severance of religion from business in the 
minds and lives of many professors is lamentably 
manifest. A man who is not righteous with men can- 
not be righteous before God. A man who is wrong in 

34 



530 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

his lower relations is sure to be so in the higher. If 
one be untrue or tricky or dishonest with men, he can- 
not make amends before God by any amount of pray- 
ing, or penance, or psalm-singing, or alms-giving, or 
church-going. If things are not done on "the square" 
in the shop, the store, the office, the home, a man 
need not think he can make up for them in the closet 
or in the church. Giving one half of ill-gotten gains 
does not rectify matters ; giving all will not do it. 
Praying will not cancel cheating ; nor attending prayer- 
meeting, lying. If a man would be right with God he 
must get right with men. 

I know of no great expounder of moral principle, 
I know of no eloquent teacher of divine truth who is 
more useful in God's world, than a business man that 
carries his religion into his business. With many 
people, religion is merely a matter of words. So far 
as words go, we do what we think right. But the 
words rarely lead to action, thought and conduct, or to 
purity, goodness and honesty. There is too much 
playing at religion, and too little of enthusiastic work 
for Christ. 

An everyday religion is one that loves the duties 
of our common walk; one that makes an honest man; 
one that accomplishes an intellectual and moral growth 
in the subject; one that works in all weathers and im- 
proves all opportunities, will best and most healthily 
promote the growth of a church and the power of the 
gospel. 

When a Christian finds his belief in the doctrines 
of the gospel growing weak, his doubts arising, it is 



EVERY DAY RELIGION. 53 I ■ 

well for him to look within, and to see whether it is not 
the fact that coldness of heart has given rise to wan- 
dering of the head. We need a sympathetic spirit in 
order to receive and understand the truth. We learn 
our most valuable lessons through experience. When 
experience ceases, our apprehension of the truth often 
ceases. 

" I have been a member of your church for thirty 
years," said an elderly Christian to his pastor, "and 
when I was laid by with sickness only one or two came 
to see me. I was shamefully neglected." " My friend," 
said the pastor, " in all those thirty years how many 
sick have you visited?" " O," he replied, "it never 
struck me in that light." The trouble with this man 
was that he only thought of the obligations that other 
people owed him, and gave very little thought to his 
own obligations to them. It is too bad to think of, but 
just such persons, calling themselves Christians, are to 
be found in every community. 

Carry God whilst thou livest, in the chariot of thy 
zealous soul, and thou shalt not want the chariot and 
horses of fire to attend thee when thou diest. Your 
Saviour has a human heart. There is no reason and 
really no place in the universe for a man who denies 
God's existence because he is out of sight on high. Is 
your heart hungry? So is Christ's heart! It is 
hungry with human love for human love. He was 
born of a woman. Christianity is the regeneration of 
our whole nature, not the destruction of one atom 
of it. 

We are all ministers ; some are speaking minis- 



53 2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

ters, some giving ministers, some sick-visiting minis- 
ters, some quiet, sympathetic ministers, but all the 
Lord's people are prophets, and we are only in the 
apostolic succession so long as we succeed to the 
apostolic spirit and to the apostolic doctrine. 

The great duty of Christians is to win the world 
to Christ. It is a work for all, not for the preacher 
alone. It is a work for every day and hour all through 
life, not for occasional seasons merely and times of 
special interest. If the walls are not built, it is the 
fault of all the workmen who have failed in their 
duty. When all work, the walls go up surely and 
grandly; when a few work and the rest are idle, but 
few stones are laid, and they cannot protect us against 
the foe. 

— 4f^B^ 

She ©owep^ op ©p^aye^. 

Christ's soldiers fight best on their knees. 
Pray more and worry less. — D. L. Moody. 

Ere you left your room this morning, 

Did you think to pray ? 
In the name of Christ, our Saviour, 
Did you sue for loving favor, 

As a shield to-day ? 

When you met with great temptations, 

Did you think to pray ? 
By his dying love and merit, 
Did you claim the Holy Spirit, 

As your guide and stay ? 

The more we pray, the more we forget to be 
unthankful, discontented, grumbling. We forget to 
be anxious and worried, because we lay our burdens 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 533 

on the Saviour. We forget to be gloomy, because we 
draw near to the source of all joy. We cease to sin 
as much as before, because the heart becomes purified 
in its intercourse with Jehovah. 

He that knows how to pray has the secret of safety 
in prosperity, and of support in trouble. He has the 
art of overruling every enemy, and of turning every 
loss into gain. He has the power of soothing every 
.care, of subduing every passion, and of adding a relish 
to every enjoyment. Many things are good for me, 
but none so good as to draw nigh to God. 

Faith builds, in the dungeon and the lazar-house, 
its sublimest shrines ; and up, through roofs of stone, 
that shut up the eye of Heaven, ascends the ladder- 
prayer — where the angels glide to and fro. He that 
knows how to pray has the secret of support in trouble, 
and of relief from anxiety; the power of soothing 
every care, and filling the soul with entire trust and 
confidence for the future. Go and talk with God on 
the mount of prayer, and then descend with shining 
face and transfigured soul to bless the weary multitude 
beneath. 

In this age of doubt, when nothing sacred escapes 
the contempt of the skeptic, and when he would seek 
to uproot the foundations of the faith of the ages, it 
could hardly be expected that prayer, which 

" is the Christian's vital breath, 

The Christian's native air," 

would go untouched. Quite to the contrary, they 
have laid violent hands upon that, than which there is 
nothing more natural, and certainly nothing more 



534 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

spiritual. Such is the awful sense of God's power and 
presence, and of man's utter dependence upon some- 
thing above and beyond himself, that the very stress 
of circumstances into which even the worst are brought 
will wring from them the language of prayer. 

It is a disposition of our normal nature to pray ; 
God has made us for the duty of prayer. And in 
amazing accommodation he has linked an inherent 
power to the fervent, faithful prayer. " The effectual, 
fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much." I know 
of nothing beneath heaven's blue vault that is so pow- 
erful as the sincere, simple prayer. For to this an 
eternal omnipotent God has committed himself to use 
his power. The power that has propelled the wheels 
of the world, moving it forward to the advancing light 
of peace and harmony amid the nations of earth, has 
not been that which has emanated from the cabinets of 
presidents and kings ; nor again that which has been 
derived from the shock of contending battalions upon 
the gory fields, but it has been the hidden power 
couched in the prayers of good men and godly women, 
wrestling with God in their silent closets. The conflict 
which gained the grandest victory for Scotland, and 
lifted her where she stands to-day, a land lit up with 
the altar-fires of intelligence and piety, did not originate 
in Holyrood Palace, nor was it waged upon the field 
of carnage, but in the solitary chamber of John Knox, 
who prayed all night, crying out in the desperation of 
faith, "Give me Scotland, or I die." 

Young man, would you be a power for good — 
would you, like Jacob, become a prevailing prince 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 535 

among men? Keep close to God in prayer. The 
mightiest man on earth to-day is he who has most 
power with God. " Prayer is the magic sound that 
saith to fate, so be it ; prayer is the slender nerve that 
moveth the muscles of Omnipotence." 

On the rocks by the seashore I have seen marine 
creatures living when the tide was out ; not in the briny 
pools it leaves, but on the dry and naked rock — in the 
withering air — in the burning, broiling sun. They 
lived, because when twice each day the foaming tide 
came in, and rising, covered the rocky shelf they clung 
to, they opened their shut and shelly mouths to drink 
in water enough to last them when the tide went out, 
and till the next tide came in. Even so, twice a day 
also at the least, we are to replenish our thirsty souls 
— fill our emptiness from the ocean of grace and mercy 
that flows free and full in Christ, to the least of saints 
and chief of sinners. In him dwelleth all the Godhead 
bodily. 

Prayer, which is a constant duty and privilege, is 
practically "desire." It is desire with its garments on ; 
desire booted and saddled for traveling the heavenly 
road. Prayer without desire is dead ; its soul has fled, 
it is but the carcass of prayer. When desire is burn- 
ing in the soul it sends up the flame of prayer, or the 
sparks of sighs and groans. Prayer is the fiery chariot 
and desires are its horses of fire. Since, then, we are 
commanded to "pray without ceasing," we are really 
commanded to make known our desires continually. 
Give utterance to your desire in the best form you 
can, however difficult may be the task. I pray you do 



536 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

this, for God would have you confess all to him. He 
says that 'men ought always to pray and not to faint;" 
and again, " in everything by prayer and supplication 
let your requests be made known unto God." Jesus 
said, " Watch and pray," and his apostle said, "I will 
that men pray everywhere." And what is this but to 
make your desires known to God ? 

Bishop Taylor beautifully remarks : " Prayer is the 
key to open the day, and the bolt to shut in the night* 
But as the clouds drop the early dew and the evening 
dew upon the grass, yet it would not spring and grow 
green by that constant and double falling of the dew, 
unless some great shower at certain seasons did sup- 
ply the rest; so the customary devotion of prayer 
twice a day is the falling of the early and the latter 
dew. But if you will increase and flourish in works 
of grace, empty the great clouds sometimes, and let 
them fall in a full shower of prayer. Choose out 
seasons when prayer shall overflow like Jordan in time 
of harvest." 

Earnest, intense prayer is the key to the gate 
that opens into life's noblest success. When Martin 
Luther had much labor to do, he prayed much. Labor 
without prayer will rarely be a success from the highest 
stand-point. Labor is said to be of noble birth ; but 
prayer is the daughter of heaven. Labor has a place 
near the throne ; but prayer touches the golden scep- 
ter. Labor, Martha-like, is busy with much serving; 
but prayer sits with Mary at the feet of Jesus. 

He that knows how to pray has the secret of 
safety in prosperity and of support in trouble. He 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. ^37 

has the art of overruling every enemy, and of turning 
every loss into a gain. He has the power of soothing 
every care, of subduing every passion, and of adding 
a relish to every enjoyment. Many things are good 
for me, but none so good as to draw nigh to God. 

The ordinary blessings of life will ever come to us 
in the ordinary way, and our prayers will, with very 
few indeed, if any, exceptions, meet their answer in 
the ordinary events in human life. When we pray, 
"Thy kingdom come," we expect the prayer to be 
answered by the operation of all the instrumentalities 
and agencies by which gospel grace is administered 
and gospel triumphs achieved. In like manner the 
daily prayer for daily bread and deliverance from evil 
will receive daily answers in fresh supplies and deliv- 
erance. And true devotion will see, in these daily 
blessings, the tokens of the All-wise and ever provi- 
dent care and protection of the Father in heaven 
to whom we pray. That there may be wonderful and 
even miraculous interpositions is true ; but they will 
not be looked for except on occasions of so extraor- 
dinary a nature as to demand them. 

Faithful prayer always implies correlative exertion ; 
and no man can ask honestly or hopefully to be deliv- 
ered from temptation, unless he has himself honestly 
and firmly determined to do the best he can to keep 
out of it. 

The prayers of men have not changed God's physi- 
cal laws. They were well arranged when the world 
was set in order. But it is the prayers of loyal men — 
it is their work with God and his with them — which 



538 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

planted this continent with men who wanted to obey 
His law. In the midst of personal selfishness and per- 
sonal crime, the drift, the general wish, of this land has 
been to obey His law, as far as the land could make it 
out. 

And prayer is a reassuring of one's self that God 
does exist. It is a reaching out and laying hold of the 
hand of God, as a timid child in the night is comforted 
by taking hold of a parent's hand. Prayer is not so 
much that by which we secure a change in the order 
of events as something by which we are made qu'iet, 
and content to let the afflictive order of events go on. 
It is the soul's assurance to itself that this suffering 
and this midnight darkness is all controlled by God, 
and that out of it he will bring the highest good. And 
so with prayer comes praise. The soul which by 
prayer has gained a sense of God's presence lifts up 
to him its joyful songs of praise. The world is full of 
troubled, sorrowing men — men who have been so 
afflicted that they have given up hope and are in 
despair. Now if you will only sing songs in the mid- 
night, they may be persuaded that after all the world 
is ruled by God. 

If a canoe be connected by a cord with a distant 
ship, one in the canoe may draw himself to the ship, if 
he cannot draw the ship to himself. So, it has been 
said, is it with prayer. If it do not bring God to man, 
it will bring man to God. 

And this is always well for man. Conscious ap- 
proach to God lifts man above himself; takes him, for 
the time, out of this world of everchahging phenomena 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 539 

and places him among the changeless varieties of 
eternity. 

Oh ! it is a glorious fact that prayers are noticed in 
heaven. The poor, broken-hearted sinner, climbing 
up to his chamber, bends his knee, but can only utter 
his wailing in the language of sighs and tears. Lo ! 
that groan has made all the harps of heaven thrill with 
music ; that tear has been caught by God and put into 
the lachrymatory of heaven, to be perpetually pre- 
served. The suppliant, whose fears prevent his words, 
will be well understood by the Most High. 

Oh, fathers and mothers, are your homes prayer- 
less? And when it is too late, when your children 
have grown and gone out into the stormy, tempting 
world, and when they are no longer impressible to the 
voice of prayer, will it be your reproachful, bitter regret 
that they have gone from your home and perhaps from 
the world without an example of prayer from you, and 
without any petition from their own lips! May God 
save you such an experience and help you towards the 
realization of a better fate! As you must make the 
first approach, you must make your home Christian. 
Do this, and as time severs the links that bind it in 
loving unity and one goes here and another there, it 
will be a delightful reflection that your home had an 
altar, a door opening towards heaven, and that ere long 
there will be a joyful family reunion and a sweet shout 
of praise in the heavenly home on high. 

A sweet and intelligent little girl was passing 
quietly through the streets when she came to a spot 
where several idle boys were amusing themselves by 



54° WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

the dangerous practice of throwing stones. Not ob- 
serving her, one of the boys, by accident, threw a stone 
towards her, and struck her a cruel blow in the eye. 

She was carried home in great agony. The doctor 
was sent for, and a very painful operation was declared 
necessary. When the time came, and the surgeon 
had taken out his instruments, she lay in her father's 
arms, and he asked her if she was ready for the doctor 
to do what he could to cure her eye. 

" No, father, not yet," she replied. 

"What do you wish us to wait for, my child?" 

" I want to kneel in your lap, and pray to Jesus 
first," she answered. 

And then kneeling, she prayed a few minutes, and 
afterwards submitted to the operation with all the 
patience of a strong woman. 

How beautiful this little girl appears under these 
trying circumstances! Surely Jesus heard the prayer 
made in that hour ; and he will hear every child that 
calls upon his name. Even pain can be endured when 
we ask Jesus to help us bear it. 

Three little children, about six, four and three 
years of age, respectively, were playing together when, 
disagreeing about something, two of them became 
rather sullen, and refused to go on with their play. 
The eldest of the three at once, and with a serious, 
matronly air, said: "Stop! and let us all kneel down 
and pray," which they did; and she, leading them, and 
having them repeat after her deliberately each word 
by itself, said: "Dear Jesus, make us love each other." 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 54 1 

They all, in subdued and most serious tones, repeated 
the words after her ; and then, rising up, went on with 
their play as pleasantly as could be wished. 

A Christian woman in a town in New York desired 
to obtain a schoolhouse for the purpose of starting a 
Sunday school, but was refused by a skeptical trustee. 
Still she persevered and asked him again and again. 

"I tell you, Aunt Polly, it is of no use. Once for 
all, I say you cannot have the schoolhouse for any 
such purpose." 

" I think I am going to get it," said Aunt Polly. 

" I should like to know how, if I do not give you 
the key." 

"I think that the Lord is going to unlock it." 

" Maybe he will," said the infidel ; " but I can tell you 
this: he will not get the key from me." 

" Well, I am going to pray over it, and I have found 
out from experience that when I keep on praying 
something always gives way!' 

And the next time she came the hard heart of the 
infidel gave way and she received the key. More than 
this, when others opposed the school, he sustained her, 
and great good was done for perishing souls. 

" Something gives way." Sometimes it is a man's 
will, and sometimes it is the man himself. Sometimes 
there is a revolution, and sometimes there is a funeral. 
When God's Spirit inspires a prayer in a believing 
Christian's heart, Omnipotence stands ready to answer 
it. " Something gives way." 

How deeply rooted must unbelief be in our hearts 



54 2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

when we are surprised to find our prayers answered, 
instead of feeling sure they will be so, if they are only 
offered up in faith and are in accord with the will of 
God. 

©I^UB I^EPBNIPANGB. 

Repentance is the key which unlocks the gate wherein sin keeps a man a 
prisoner. 

Tears on the cheek of a repentant soul are more precious in the eyes of God 
than the pearls in the diadems that angels wear. 

A determination to repent will result in a realiza- 
tion of the reasonableness and necessity of repent- 
ance, and a personal experience of it. Now, what is 
repentance? "True repentance is a grace of the 
Holy Spirit, whereby a sinner, from the sense of his 
sins and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, 
doth with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it to 
God, with full purpose of, and endeavors after, future 
obedience." This is repentance ; it consists, radically 
and essentially, in turning the mind from evil to good. 
In the nature of the case that will be accompanied 
with sorrow for sin. 

But sorrow need not be prescribed to a traveler 
who has gone the wrong way, and has to retrace his 
steps to get into the right way ; he will be sorry 
enough without prescribing any penance as a punish- 
ment for his sin, or a prerequisite for pardon. 

A willingness to trust in Christ for salvation will 
result in the assurance that we do thus trust in him, 
and are saved by him. 



TRUE REPENTANCE. 543 

Prayer is the vehicle of faith — a means of acquir- 
ing it — thus the general belief in God's mercy through 
Christ, which sweetly prompts us to pray, procures 
that faith by which we are justified. A disposition to 
do the whole will of God will result in the assurance 
that we are saved by him. This is what is significant- 
ly called experimental religion. We leave the inquirer 
to make the experiment for himself, having no misgiv- 
ing as to the result. We simply remark that the 
doubts of men are occasioned by their ignorance, 
indolence, pride, and prejudice, which indispose them 
to do the will of God. It follows that men are justly 
condemned for their unbelief, because it has in it the 
essence of disobedience, of which it is both cause and 
effect. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be 
saved ; but he that believeth not shall be damned." 

Regeneration affects man's moral nature, changes 
the current of his thoughts and desires. It changes 
the life by changing the springs thereof. It sweetens 
and purifies the stream of individual influence by cast- 
ing the sweetening and purifying substance into the 
fountain. God traces the evil and the good, that is 
revealed in individual life in evil thoughts and desires, 
on the one hand, and in good thoughts and desires, on 
the other, to the right source, the heart. Mind rules 
matter. Mind conceives the ideal, then guides the 
skilled and cunning hand in the production of the ideal 
in substantial form. It is the ruling power in the 
realm of literature and art. 

But when we come to the consideration of man's 
complex nature, uniting the moral and the intellectual, 



544 WELL-SrRINGS OF TRUTH. 

we find that, somehow, both in the light of history and 
of Scripture, the moral rules. The heart shapes and 
controls the thinking and the desires of the race. It 
gives to character its stamp and impress. "As a man 
thinketh in his heart, so is he." 

Mere sensibility is not saving. Many are affected 
by the tragedy of the Cross who will not receive its 
doctrines, or deny themselves a single indulgence for 
His sake who hung thereon. The prodigal, when he 
said, "I will arise and go to my father," became, in a 
measure, reformed from that very moment. He not 
only left the swine-troughs, but he left the wine-cups 
and the harlots.^ He did not go with a harlot on his 
arm and wine-cup in his hand, and with these attempt 
to return to his father. This could not be. They 
were all left ; and though he had no goodness to bring, 
he forsook his vices as soon as he proposed a better 
life. If we do not know what the sorrow of penitence 
is we are far from true peace. It is because we have 
been living only on the surface of life, unmindful of its 
deep realities, not seeing the grander glories. 

These things, then, being true, it is manifest that if 
man ever attains to a correct outward life, the heart 
must be changed. A mere change of will is not suf- 
ficient. The drunkard wills to turn to a life of sobriety, 
but appetite conquers the will. The libertine wills to 
become pure and chaste in life ; but passion bears 
down before its terrific power the unbuttressed will, 
and the man goes downward still. The remedy for 
this, the only remedy, lies in a change of the moral 
nature. Man must be taught, not only to love virtue 



TRUE REPENTANCE. 545 

and right for their own sake, but be so strengthened 
in the springs of his moral being that he shall be able 
to obey the behests of the will. In a word, God must 
come in, cleanse, change the heart, and adorn it with 
the immortal garniture of the Spirit. 

I do entreat you to remember that salvation is the 
one thing needful. Health, and riches, and titles are 
•not needful things. A man may gain eternal life with- 
out them. But what shall the man do who dies not 
saved ? Oh, that you would see that you must have 
salvation now, in this present life, and lay hold upon it 
for your soul. Oh, that you would see that, saved or 
not saved is the grand question in religion. Sects or 
parties, opinions and creeds, all these are trifling 
questions in comparison. 

Repentance is not a change in the realm of the 
intellect. It is not a change of opinion, as when scien- 
tific men held for a time that the planets moved around 
the sun, following the course of a perfect circle, and 
afterwards changed their minds and concluded that 
the planets moved around the sun, following the 
course of an ellipse. That was a change of opinion. 
That is not repentance. 

Repentance is not a change of will, as when a 
young man sits down, it may be at the beginning of the 
year, and he says: "I am going to turn over a new 
leaf. I am tired of my old life. I am going to live a 
better life." That of itself is very well ; but it is not 
repentance. He finds, it may be soon, that he is like 
a little child rowing a small boat against a strong cur- 
rent, — though he struggles hard, he is ever borne 
35 



54-6 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

back further and further by the stream. This is not 
repentance. Mr. Moody defines repentance as con- 
taining two features; sorrow, and change of purpose. 
Repentance is not fear; it -is not remorse; it is not 
feeling ; it is not praying. It is turning from a sinful 
course and entering on a holy course. 

No man ever saw himself a lost, ruined, helpless sin- 
ner save under the influences of the Spirit. The word 
is the sword of the Spirit, and is only mighty through 
God when wielded by the Holy Spirit. Repentance is 
the repudiation of self, and faith is the acceptance of 
Christ, and between the two is a gulf where many a 
man has been drowned in perdition. The proof that 
we believe in the reality of religion is that we walk in 
the power of it. And apart from this there is no 
argument to sustain it, no demonstration to establish it. 

Wherever there is true repentance, there will be 
the beginning of a new and better behaviour. A man 
who repents will set out to be a better man. That is 
the reason why we cannot do our repentance and say 
good-bye to it, all up at one time. No; a man is ever 
to repent. His blessed Lord has taught him to pray 
the daily prayer: " Forgive us our trespasses." All 
through the Christian life, repentance is a factor in 
sanctification. A servant girl once asked for admission 
into a church in which the members were very particu- 
lar whom they accepted for membership ; so they gave 
her a very thorough examination, and among other 
questions asked her: "What makes you think that 
you really have become a Christian ? " And she 
answered: "I sweep under the mats now." Before, 



TRUE REPENTANCE. 547 

she had done her work superficially ; now, she did it 
conscientiously. And so, wherever there is repentance, 
there will be the beginning of scrupulous behaviour. 
That is what the psalmist means when he says: " I will 
run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt 
enlarge my heart." 

Repentance is a change of heart. God says : " Son, 
give me thine heart." As if he should say, if you will 
only give your heart, your whole nature must follow. 
And so we find it written that out of the heart are the 
issues of life. Repentance is a change of heart, a 
change of affection ; so that a man who is a good lover 
and a good hater, if he is converted, will become a 
good Christian. Religion is a matter of the affections. 
Here we are, the roots of our lives matted together 
in this great sod of humanity, men, women and chil- 
dren. We have our father, mother, brothers, sisters, 
wife, children, sweet 'acquaintances and friends, and 
we stand in definite relation to this one and that one ; 
but the time comes when there springs up a definite 
relation between us and God. Human life needs for 
its completeness perpendicular as well as horizontal 
relations. We need to be bound to God by relations 
of trust and love ; and the formation of these relations 
to God — this is repentance. Repentance is the turn- 
ing of the affections Godward. 

We do not wish to hide anything ; our hope lies in 
our heavenly Father's knowing all. There should be 
no wish to smuggle up even a stray desire, or to con- 
ceal the most doleful groan ; all should be open and 
above-board between a sinner and his Saviour. What 



54^ WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

secrets can there be between a soul convinced of sin 
and a pardoning God ? It would have an ill look if we 
still sewed fig-leaves together, or hid among the trees 
of the garden. No, let us stand forth, and let our cov- 
ering be such only as the Lord himself provides. Take 
care, then, in prayer to set forth the secrets of your 
soul before God. Tell Him your sin, and spread it 
out in all its sorrowful detail. Tell Him your fears for 
the past, your anxieties for the present, and your 
dreads for the future; tell Him your suspicions of 
yourself, and your trembling lest you should be de- 
ceived. Tell Him what salvation you wish for, and 
what work of grace it is that your soul desireth: make 
all your heart known unto God, and keep back nothing, 
for much benefit will come to you from being honest 
with your best Friend. 

There are many who want to be religious, who 
desire to be real, genuine Christians ; but they lack 
courage and resolution. They frame many frivolous 
excuses, and listen to many evil suggestions from the 
enemy. Sometimes they make the start, but are timid, 
irresolute, and are afraid they will perish without it ; 
but they do not go resolutely to God with the deter- 
mination that they will seek until they obtain. So they 
always remain doubting, trembling, irresolute and un- 
happy, desiring heaven, but unwilling to strive for it. 

Behold the sinner on his knees, with the pricks of 
conscience lashing his poor soul until he is driven to a 
frenzy. His remorse is keen, his fear appalling, and 
his feeling and piteous prayers draw tears from the 
eyes of those who witness his struggles. He agonizes 



TRUE REPENTANCE. 549 

in this manner without avail, and time and again seems 
sinking in despair, until a good and wise brother ap- 
proaches, and, with a tenderness born alone of that 
love to God and peaceful indwelling of the Holy 
Spirit, whispers words of wisdom in his ear. 

" My brother," says the man of God, " cease your 
struggles ; your actions and your words are in vain, 
for they cannot save you. Though you poured out 
your prayers like the waters of the sea, and though 
your groans resounded through the arches of heaven, 
and youi> remorse found expression in the surging 
winds, yet it would all be of no avail. There was one 
who was 'wounded for our transgressions,' and on 
Him was laid the burden of providing salvation for all 
mankind. 'By His stripes' are we healed, and nothing, 
not anything whatsoever, remains for us to do that we 
may partake of that salvation. My brother, accept of 
the blessing that the dear Lord holds out to you, and 
in accepting it, prove that you are enjoying it and 
making it your own by a newness of life and action. 
But don't think that because of this new way of living 
you are saved! Oh, no! You are saved already 
through Him, and now partake of that salvation by 
using the newness of life He has given you." 



550 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 



Sunshine and Shadow. 

All sunshine makes the desert. — Arab Proverb. 

They tell in Europe of a poor man who was con- 
fined for many years in a cold, dark dungeon. There 
was but one aperture in the wall, and through that the 
sunbeams came for but a few minutes daily, making a 
bright spot on the opposite side of the cell. Often 
and often the lonely man looked upon that little patch 
of sunshine, and at length a purpose to improve it 
grew within his soul. Groping on the floor of his cell 
he found a nail and a stone, and with these rude imple- 
ments he set to work on the white portion of the wall 
for the few minutes of every day, during which it was 
illuminated, until at length he succeeded in bringing 
out upon it a rude sculpture of Christ upon the cross. 

Look on the bright side. It is the right side. The 
times may be hard, but it will make them no easier to 
wear a gloomy and sad countenance. It is the sun- 
shine and not the clouds that makes the flower. The 
sky is blue ten times where it is black once. You 
have troubles — so have others. None are free from 
them. Troubles give sinew and tone t(f life — fortitude 
and courage to man. That would be a dull sea, and 
the sailors would never get skill, were there nothing 
to disturb the surface of the ocean. What though 
things look a little dark, the lane will turn, and night 
will end in a broad day. There is more virtue in a sun- 
beam than in a whole hemisphere of cloud and gloom. 



SUNSHINE AND SHADOW. 55 1 

All our afflictions are Christ's refinings ; and the 
purer the gold, the hotter will be the fire; the whiter 
the garment, the harder the cleansing. Sorrow over- 
whelms us, yet God finds music in everything. Our 
sighs and sobs waft prayers to Him that bring deliver- 
ance down. They are really songs of triumph in 
minor keys. From a bruised and broken heart God's 
touch causes melody to flow forth. 

The man who has learned to triumph over sorrow 
wears his miseries as though they were sacred fillets 
upon his brow, and nothing is so entirely admirable as 
a man bravely wretched. Every to-morrow extends 
either a hand of anxiety or a hand of faith. Men's 
lives should be like the days, growing more beautiful 
towards the evening. 

Some kinds of adversity are chiefly of the character 
of trials, and others of discipline. By discipline is to 
be understood anything that has a direct tendency to 
produce improvement, or to create some qualification 
that did not exist before ; and by trial anything that 
tends to ascertain what improvement has been made, 
or what qualities exist. 

Shadows lie on many fields of knowledge, but the 
light of God falls on the path of duty. Seneca says 
that the good things which belong to prosperity are to 
be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity 
are to be admired. The virtue of prosperity is tem- 
perance, the virtue of adversity is fortitude; which 
latter is the more heroical virtue. Our sweetest son^s 
are those which tell of saddest thought. 

A black cloud makes the traveler mend his pace 



55 2 - WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

and mind his home ; whereas a fair day and a pleasant 
way waste his time, and that stealeth away his affec- 
tions in the prospect of the country. However others 
may think of it, yet I take it as a mercy that now and 
then some clouds come between me and my sun, and 
many times some troubles do conceal my comforts; 
for I perceive if I should find too much friendship in 
any inn in my pilgrimage, I should soon forget my 
Father's house and my heritage. 

Christians have frequently more of these sufferings 
than others. The husbandman does not prune the 
bramble, but the vine. The stones designed for the 
temple above require more cutting and polishing than 
those which are for the common wall. Correction is 
not for strangers, but children. The Christian mourns 
over those infirmities which are not viewed by others as 
sins, such as wandering thoughts and cold affections in 
duty. It is said of that beautiful bird, the bird of Para- 
dise, that if it is caught and caged, it never ceases to 
sigh till it is free. Just such is the Christian. Nothing 
will satisfy him but the glorious liberty of the sons of 
God. 

The weeping of the night dew is soon dried from 
the short grass, and abides not many hours upon the 
long, save where the shade of shrub or willow wards 
off the sun-rays. So the tears of sadness remain but 
for a short space upon the eyelashes of those who are 
young, and even the older ones soon become so inter- 
ested in the pressing cares of daily life that their griefs 
vanish into the great sepulchre of time. 

The greatest of difficulties often lie where we are 



SUNSHINE AND SHADOW. 553, 

not looking for them. When painful events occur, 
they are, perhaps, sent only to try and prove us. If 
we stand firm in our hour of trial, the firmness gives 
serenity to the mind, which always feels satisfaction in 
acting conformably to duty. "The battles of the wil- 
derness," said Norman Macleod, "are the sore battles 
of every-day life. Their giants are our giants, their 
sorrows our sorrows, their defeats and victories ours 
also. As they had honors, defeats and victories, so 
have we." 

Tribulation may come as a flood into the church ;, 
we may be disappointed even in the brethren ; but 
those who have the eye fixed on Christ " hold on their 
way." The word which they have heard and which 
they keep is a strong link binding them to Him who 
is more than all else to them. 

Such are life's scenes. Change and disappoint- 
ment are written upon every leaf of Time's book. The 
present seems cheerless, oftentimes sad, and we look 
forward to the future for a " reserved cup of bliss ; " 
the future comes and we find the cup empty or sadly 
adulterated. Our dearest joys, how fleeting they are! 
We place our affections upon some cherished friend, 
and that friend is taken from us by death; we .bestow 
all the wealth of our affections upon some idolized 
object, and that devotion is unrequited — perhaps held 
in derision. 

Life, however, has some sunny spots ; but they who 
seek happiness only from the world, find but few of 
them. The gifted Byron possessed of rank and 
talents by which he swayed at will the human heart,. 



554 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

and at the waking of whose " harp nations heard en- 
tranced," was most unhappy. 

" A wandering, weary, worn and wretched thing, 
A scorched, and desolate, and blasted soul, 
A gloomy wilderness of dying thought — 
Repined and groaned, and withered from the earth. " 

Every man throws on to his surroundings the sun- 
shine or the shadow that exists in his own soul. There 
are two sides to everything — a sunny side and a shady 
side. Where are you ? Come out of the shadow and 
sit in the sunlight. There you have warmth and bird- 
songs all the year round. Feelings come and go like 
light troops following the victory of the present ; but 
principles, like troops of the line, are undisturbed and 
stand fast. 

Are there no ways worth walking in but those un- 
certain trails blazed for us by pioneers through tangled 
forests on the frontiers of faith. Old roads there are 
that offer fair prospects and that lead to pleasant 
places ; where the hedgerows every year are sweet 
with blossoms and musical with birds; from beneath 
whose sheltering rocks the living water springs as cool 
and fresh to-day as when our fathers drank thereof. 

Most of the beatitudes which infinite compassion 
pronounced have the sorrow of earth for their subject, 
but the joys of heaven for their completion. 

While we are wrangling here in the dark we are 
dying and passing to the world that will decide all our 
controversies, and the safest passage thither is by 
peaceable holiness. 

The world's eye sees little beauty in the crown of 
thorns, and is unable to perceive the grandeur of the 



TRUTH. 555 

faith that accepts the sorrow of the heaviest cross for 
the sake of the Christ it cannot see. There are, 
indeed, flashes of spiritual glory, beaming now and 
then from the Christian spirit in its agony, that are too 
bright to be concealed ; but usually the mass of men 
are unable to hear the undertone of heavenly music 
that thrills through the cry of Christian sorrow, or 
detect the robes of the heavenly palace beneath the 
garments of great tribulation. 

The children sometimes stretch a silver thread in 
the window, between the sashes, to make an /Eolian 
harp, and while the air is calm and still there is no 
music, but when the wind blows softly a faint mur- 
mur of music is heard, and the stronger the wind, 
the louder and sweeter the melody becomes. It is 
so with many a human heart. The purest, sweetest, 
holiest joy I ever witnessed in mortal on earth was in 
one who for fourteen years had been sitting in her 
chair, unable to lift hand or foQt. All these years her 
heart had been communing with God, and the sorrows 
that beat upon the chords of her soul struck out songs 
which might have fallen from an angel's tongue. 



(SMUTCH. 

The possession of truth is a matter of the greatest 
importance. " Ye shall know the truth, and the 
truth shall make you free;" but the tendency of the 
human mind to exalt one truth to the neglect of all 



556 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

others, often leads to prejudice, bitterness and strife, 
and frequently hinders the progress of correct ideas. 
The truth is far more important than a truth ; and fre- 
quently when persons suppose they are disseminating- 
the truth, they are simply laboring to proclaim a truth ; 
and in many cases a truth which is not of the greatest 
importance. Truth, considered in its length and 
breadth, comprehends the wisdom of an omniscient 
God. Our knowledge of truth is necessarily very lim- 
ited, and our great danger is in setting some single 
truth in the foreground, and thus deranging the har- 
mony of the divine system, instead of allowing every 
portion of the revealed truth to keep its appropriate 
position. 

All truth is* in one sense, religious truth. It leads 
ultimately up to God; it is what it is by his will and 
authority. As all true virtue, wherever found, is a ray 
of the life of the All-Holy, so all solid knowledge, all 
really accurate thought, descends from the Eternal 
Reason, and ought, when we apprehend it, to guide us 
upwards to Him. 

All that Christ, our great Teacher, delivers to us 
is truth — truth unmixed with error, truth of the might- 
iest importance, truth that can make us free, truth that 
can make us holy, truth that can make us blessed for- 
evermore. " What is truth ?" was the question which 
the whole world, not Pilate alone, was asking on the 
day when Christ was crucified. Pilate seems to have 
been divinely guided to answer his own question, 
when he cried, " Behold the man !" 

Put holy truth in every false heart; instil a sacred 



TRUTH. 557 

piety into every worldly mind and a blessed virtue into 
every fountain of corrupt desires; and the anxieties of 
philanthropy might be hushed and the tears of benevo- 
lent prayer and faith might be dried up and patriot- 
ism and piety might gaze upon the scene and the 
prospect with unmingled joy. Let the soul be turned 
as strenuously towards good as it usually is towards 
evil, and you will find that the simple love of goodness 
will give incredible resources to the spirit in the search 
after truth. Love, with intellect, will perform miracles. 

Whenever the soul comes into a living contact 
with fact and truth, whenever it realizes these with 
more than common vividness, there arises a thrill of 
joy, a glow of emotion. And the expression of that 
thrill, that glow, is poetry. The nobler the objects, 
the nobler will be the poetry they awaken when they 
fall on the heart of a true poet. 

No man is thirsty from the want of truth to slake 
that thirst, but from the want of the power to take 
hold of that truth, and so realize satisfaction. Jesus 
gives the power to do this when He gives the Spirit, 
and that Spirit gives satisfaction by the power He 
bestows to understand the things of God. 

The condition of arriving at truth is not severe 
habits of investigation, but innocence of life and 
humbleness of heart. Truth is felt, not reasoned out; 
and if there be any truths which are only appreciable 
by the acute understanding, we may be sure at once 
that these do not constitute the soul's life, nor error in 
these the soul's death. For instance, the metaphysics 
of God's Being; the "plan," as they call it, of "salva- 



558 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

tion;" the exact distinction between the Divine and 
human in Christ's Person. On all these subjects you 
may read and read until the brain is dizzy and the 
heart's action is stopped; so that of course the mind is 
bewildered. But dn subjects of Right and Wrong, 
Divine and Diabolic, Noble and Base, I believe 
sophistry cannot puzzle so long as the life is right. 

There are many departments of truth, human, 
divine and devilish. There are truths which are of 
little importance; truths which do not concern us, and 
truths the very knowledge of which would stain and 
pollute our souls ; for the knowledge which Satan has 
led men to seek is not merely the knowledge of good, 
it is "the knowledge of good and evil." There are 
things which are ruinous to those who know them, 
there are truths which we would keep forever from the 
minds and comprehensions of those who are nearest 
and dearest to us. 

Truth, to do good, must be timed. Firmness must 
be tempered by timeliness. To rebuke some sins 
under certain circumstances would be simply to awake 
all the combativeness there is in man's nature, and 
make him more determined in wrong doing. But there 
are times in the history of the social life of every com- 
munity when for a pulpit to remain silent upon, the 
questions of moral and social reform, to fail to speak 
plainly, pointedly, fearlessly against Sabbath desecra- 
tion, card-playing, dancing, theater-going and so on to 
the end, is to be guilty of a gross delinquency of duty. 
The truth must be spoken, even though our position 
be surrendered because of our fidelity. 






TRUTH. 559 

The truth learned in the Sunday school has sprung 
up in the heart of the sailor tossed on the stormy 
deep ; and in the breast of the soldier breathing valor 
in the tented field. In the wild woods of the West the 
colonist recalls it ; in the gloomy prison, in the convict 
ship, and the convict settlement, it tells the captive how 
he may be free. In times of sorrow, on beds of sick- 
ness, in the hour of disappointment or loss (for our 
wants are various and our woes are many), when the 
mind, subdued and tamed, recalls the scenes of child- 
hood, the companions and friends of early years, — the 
heart swells, the eye fills, and the tear falls, as the text, 
the chapter or the hymn learned in the Sunday school 
tells of mercy yet in store, and leads the broken, 
wounded and bleeding spirit to the balm in Gilead, and 
to the physician there. " Cast thy bread upon the 
waters, for thou shalt find it after many days." 

There are old truths which, being neither Calvin- 
istic nor Armenian nor philosophical, are so simple and 
precious that the humblest can understand and be glad. 
" Sanctify them through Thy truth, Thy word is truth." 
These words were uttered by our Lord, and they prove 
the necessity of a knowledge of truth in order for it to 
affect our lives. The object in giving the Church 
truth is to set them apart from the world, and to 
cleanse them "through obedience" to it. And if this 
end is not attained, then we will never be fit for the 
glorious position to which we are called by His word. 
If this truth was more impressed on the minds of 
Christians, they would endeavor to "worship God in 



560 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

spirit and in truth," and we may safely say that only 
such worship is wholly acceptable to Him. 

Truth is given, not to be contemplated, but to be 
done. Life is an action : — not a thought; and the 
penalty paid by . him who speculates on truth is that 
by degrees the very truth he holds becomes to him a 
falsehood. It is an endless work to be uprooting 
weeds. Plant the ground with wholesome vegetation, 
and then the juicies which would have otherwise fed 
rankness will pour themselves into a more vigorous 
growth ; the dwindled weeds will be easily raked out 
then. It is an endless task to be refuting error. Plant 
truth, and the error will pine away. 

Remember that truth commonly goes in russet 
and error in purple. The sober judgment which 
cannot be seduced by the glitter of false ideas, hides 
itself in by-ways among slow, humdrum people, while 
error envelops itself in alluring sophistries that capti- 
vate brilliant men and women. Do not deny this 
until you have well thought of it, and then you will not 
deny it. 

Cultivate the love of truth. I do not mean ver- 
acity: that is another thing. Veracity is the corres- 
pondence between a proposition and a man's belief. 
Truth is the correspondence of the proposition with 
fact. The love of truth is the love of realities, — the 
determination to rest upon facts; and not on sem- 
blances. Take an illustration of the way in which the 
habit of cultivating truth is got. Two boys see a mis- 
shapen, hideous object in the dark. One goes up to 
the cause of his terror, examines it, learns what it is; 



TRUTH. 561 

he knows the truth, and the truth has made him free. 
The other leaves it in mystery and unexplained vague- 
ness, and is a slave for life to superstitious and inde- 
finite terrors. Romance, prettiness, " dim religious 
light," awe and mystery — these are not the atmosphere 
of Christ's gospel of liberty. Base the heart on facts. 
Truth alone makes free. 

Truth, whether in or out of fashion, is the measure 
of knowledge and the business of understanding; 
whatsoever is beside that, however authorized by con- 
sent, or recommended by rarity, is nothing but ignor- 
ance, or something worse. Adhere rigidly and unde- 
viatingly to truth ; but while you express what is true, 
express it in as pleasing a manner as possible. Truth 
is the picture ; the manner is the frame that displays 
it to advantage. Blunt truths make more mischief 
than nice falsehoods do. Concrete the truth and make 
it shine. For heaven's sake and thy soul's sake, 
teach the truth and let it alone ! 

The answers which truth gives to a man, depend 
very much upon the questions which he puts to truth ; 
the manner in which he puts his questions depends 
very much upon the principles which rule his life. The 
truer we become the more unerringly we know the 
ring of truth. All that is mortal and perishable will 
gradually weary us ; truth alone will endure. He that 
is habituated to deceptions and artificialities in trifles 
will try in vain to be true in matters of importance ; 
for truth is a thing of habit rather than will. You 
cannot in any given case, by any sudden and single 
effort, will to be true if the habit of your life has been 



562 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

insincerity. Speaking truth is like writing fair, and 
comes only by practice; it is less a matter of will than 
of habit; and I doubt if any occasion can be trivial 
which permits the practice and formation of such a 
habit. The way of truth is like a great road. It is 
not difficult to know it. The evil is only that men will 
not seek it. Do you go at once and search for it. 

Truth is a torch, but one of enormous size ; so that 
we slink past it in rather a blinking fashion for fear it 
should burn us. All truths are not to be repeated, 
still it may be well to hear them. Truth never 
turns to rebuke falsehood; her own straightforward- 
ness is the severest correction. Truth need not 
always be embodied; enough of it hovers around like 
a spiritual essence, which gives one peace, and fills 
the atmosphere with a solemn sweetness like harmoni- 
ous music of bells. 

Childhood often holds a truth with its feeble fingers, 
which the grasp of manhood cannot retain, which it is 
the pride of utmost age to recover. We must never 
throw away a bushel of truth because it happens to 
contain a few grains of chaff; on the contrary, we 
may sometimes profitably receive a bushel of' chaff for 
the few grains of truth it may contain. The first great 
work is that yourself may to yourself be true. In 
troubled water you can scarce see your face, or see it 
very little, till the water be quiet and stand still ; so in 
troubled times you can see little truth ; when times 
are quiet and settled, then truth appears. 

When attacked by a stupid or malicious critic, it is 
generally best to keep silent. Entering into contro- 






TRUTH. 563. 

versy with such will not better your situation. Re- 
member that a truth once uttered cannot die ; though 
it may be crushed, it will rise again, and the coming 
generations are almost sure to discover it and to give 
you the credit, despite all that the jealous critic may 
have said. If the truth is in your work, the critic can- 
not crush it ; he cannot destroy its influence; but if the 
truth is not in it, you will be buried out of sight, 
whether there be a critic to dig your grave or not. 

By resisting such critics one runs in danger of 
faring as did that old hunter who persistently and 
courageously followed up his game. After killing it he 
was obliged to bury his clothes. A word to the wise 
is sufficient. Such critics are generally a low game, not 
worth hunting, not worth disputing with; and he who 
indulges in a fight with them, generally comes out 
of the fight with less self-respect. 

There are three motives that move men to labor. 
Love for money, love for fame, and love for truth. 
The man who labors only for money is selfish, he who 
sacrifices all for fame is foolish, he who lives for the 
truth is the true disciple. He may not become rich, he 
may not gather fame, but he is an honest man, and 
the consciousness of this fact is worth more than 
money or fame. 

Truth should be enshrined in our inmost hearts, 
and become the object of our fervent contemplation, 
our earnest desire and aspiration. Consecrate, above 
all things, truth, whatever prejudices it may proscribe, 
whatever advantages it may forfeit, and whatever priv- 
ileges it may level ; truth' though its recompense 



c 

564 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

should be the privations of poverty or the darkness 
of the dungeon; truth, the first lesson for the child, and 
the last word of the dying ; truth, the world's regener- 
ator, God's image on earth, the essence of virtue in 
the character, the foundation of happiness in the heart; 
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. 

The remote effect of being true should have a 
place in our thoughts. The future is built on the 
present. Noble living projects itself into the future. 
It comes out in the power of children and children's 
children. Its widening and deepening influence goes 
out through the gates of the present into the ever 
deepening channels of the future. 

When your duty's task is wrought 
In unison with God's great thought, 
Know thou that there the Master's eye 
Surveys your work approvingly ; 
Smiles on your task with sweetest grace, 
Though humble and obscure your place. 
Faint not ; the crown is only won 
Through patient toil, through duties done. 



©I^OVIDENGE. 

What men call accident is the doing of God's providence. — Bailey. 

The scriptures are crowded with explicit declara- 
tions that there is nothing in nature, animate or inani- 
mate, which is self-sustaining. Nor is the Scripture 
less emphatic in affirming God's care and control of 
his human children than in declaring his sovereignty 
over nature. As a history the Bible is a continuous 



PROVIDENCE. 565 

record of God's direct guidance of his people. From 
the time of the first of the Patriarchs to that of the last 
of the Apostles, we have an unbroken series of special 
providences. The innumerable exhortations which we 
find in Scripture to put our trust in God and pray to 
him for guidance and daily blessings, are based upon 
this truth of God's special providence. Such exhorta- 
tions as "Commit thy way unto the Lord," "Rest in 
the Lord and wait patiently for him," etc., would be 
meaningless without the certain knowledge that God 
does direct the affairs of men. We can go to him with 
confidence, seeking light and strength in each day's 
need because we have the assurance from him that all 
our times are in his hand. 

But the special providence of God is not merely 
thus proved in the history and implied in the exhorta- 
tions to trust which we find in the Bible; it is also 
explicitly stated. "A man's heart deviseth his way, 
but the Lord directeth his steps." "The lot is cast 
into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the 
Lord." Most emphatic of all are the words of Christ 
himself on this point. 

What the Bible thus strongly affirms, neither 
science nor our own consciousness can deny. While 
we could never have discovered from either of these 
sources the truth that God shapes our lives, both at 
least convince us of this, that we do not and cannot 
shape them for ourselves. Vainly do men defy the 
power — call it by what name they may — which they 
are forced to see does rule the world. "Circumstan- 
ces," scornfully exclaimed Napoleon, " I make circum- 



566 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

stances." But what availed that indomitable will, that 
vehement self-confidence in the end ? The highest 
human might, the most resistless human energy must 
at length meet a force with which it cannot cope, to 
which, like the smallest and most obscure, it must suc- 
cumb. The Christian's joy is to know that this all- 
controlling force is the will of his all-wise and all-loving 
Father; his peace and strength are in the believing 
acceptance of that blessed truth. 

This is the providence in which we must believe, if 
we believe in any providence at all — a providence 
which includes not only the prominent events of life, 
but the passing incidents of each day. Nothing short 
of this embraces the truth. Nothing short of this 
realizes the blessing. It is idle to say, as people some- 
times do, that we could conceive of a general super- 
vision and guidance, but cannot imagine a direction 
which extends to the minute details of every day. 
Does not our experience teach us that those small de- 
tails, seeming as they pass so trivial, are constantly 
determining the larger results within which they are 
included? And how could those results be deter- 
mined, unless all the particulars which are seen to 
have served in bringing them to pass were also di- 
rected ? 

As well might we say that God, in creating the 
world, designed only the general outlines of continents 
and oceans, and left to the chance action of natural 
forces the details -that fill them in, while we know that 
upon these very details the outlines themselves depend. 
It is futile for us to shun the name, special providence. 



PROVIDENCE. 567 

and yet seek to have the thing it means. If there is 
any providence at all, there must be special provi- - 
dence. If our lives are in any respect or to any ex- 
tent controlled by God, they must be controlled by 
him completely. 

It is hard — it is, here and now, impossible, and 
doubtless will be always, for us fully to grasp and 
comprehend such a doctrine — to explain the "how" 
which rests upon this "that." For ourselves we know 
that we could exercise no such control as God's provi- 
dence is thus seen to involve except byabsolute despotic 
direction. We cannot, through any experience of 
which we are capable, conceive of a foresight so per- 
fect as to embrace every possible emergency, of a wis- 
dom so broad as to provide for every influence, of a 
power so boundless as to accomplish its ends while 
leaving its agents entire* freedom of will — of an om- 
niscience, in short, so absolute and unerring as to 
have perceived in each case at the outset the working 
of all the varied, conflicting, wavering forces that act 
on human lives, and to have adjusted them to the 
bringing about of every event at the desired moment, 
as directly and as specially as if Omnipotence should 
miraculously intervene on each occasion. 

But we need not understand the method, in order 
to accept and rejoice in the fact, of God's special provi- 
dence. That is true, if anything is true that God's 
Word tells, us about him, if that Word is to be trusted 
at all. It remains for us practically to cast all our care 
upon Him who, as He has so plainly declared, careth 
for us. 



568 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

. Methinks I hear some say, we should like to have 
this God for our guide. Blessed emotion ! Cherish 
it, for it is a whisper of the Divine Spirit. Use the 
means by which the spark of holy desire shall kindle 
to a flame. Seriously consider that declaration of 
Jesus Christ: " No man cometh unto the Father but 
by me." He who said this is He that came into the 
world to save sinners. He saves them by His death 
endured on the cross as an atonement for the sins of 
the world. This death was endured for us as individ- 
uals, and must be applied to you as an atonement for 
your sins. Believing on Christ is the way by which 
you can be at peace with God, and there is none other 
way under heaven given among men whereby we 
must be saved. 

In speaking of the benefits of trial and suffering 
we should never forget that tkese things by themselves 
have , no power to make us holier or heavenlier. 
They make some men morose, selfish and envious.. 
Such is the effect of pain and sorrow when unsanc- 
tified by God's saving grace. It is only when grace 
is in the heart, when power from above dwells in a 
man, that anything outward or inward turns to his sal- 
vation. 

A sick father once threw a book at his blind baby, 
who was toddling towards the fire. If he had not made 
her fall over the book, she would have been burned ; 
but she cried. She thought her father was crueL 
Sometimes God's blind children, not understanding 
what he means, feel as though he must be cruel. If 
they could see as he. can, they would thank him. We 



PROVIDENCE. 569 

do not know from what evils we have been preserved ; 
for dazzling prospects do not always bring the cheer 
and comfort we expect, and promise of future good 
often results in disappointment and sorrow. There 
are blessings and privileges in every life ; let us be 
thankful for all those which fall to our lot. 

Once a little girl, on her way to the depot, fell, hurt 
herself, missed the train. She asked her mother if 
God could love her, and let that sad thing happen to 
her. But before night that train ran off the track and 
many persons on it were killed. During the awful 
massacre at Paris, by which so many Christians were 
removed from the present world, the celebrated 
Moulin crept into an oven, over the mouth of which a 
spider instantly wove its web; so that when the ene- 
mies of the Christian inspected the premises, they 
passed by the oven with the remark, that no one could 
have been there for some days. So easily can God 
devise means for the safety of His servants. 

An incident is told of the battle of Lake Cham- 
plain, when on a Sabbath morning Commodore Downie, 
of the British squadron, sailed down on the Americans 
as they lay in the bay of Plattsburgh. Commodore 
Downie sent a man to the mast-head to see what thev 
were doing on Commodore M'Donough's ship, the flag- 
ship of the little American squadron. 

"Ho, aloft!"' said Downie. " What are they doing 
on that ship?" 

"Sir," answered the look-out, "they are gathered 
about the mainmast, and they seem to be at prayer," 



57° WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

"Ah," said Commodore Downie, "that looks well 
for them, but bad for us." 

It was bad for the British commodore, for the very 
first shot from the American ship was a chain-shot 
whieh cut poor Downie in two and killed him in a mo- 
ment. M'Donough was a simple, humble Christian, 
and a man of prayer, but brave as a lion in the hour 
of battle. He died as he lived, a simple-hearted, 
earnest Christian. 

God is a sure paymaster. He may not pay at the 
end of the week, month, or year; but I charge you 
remember He pays in the end. 

Quarrel not rashly with adversities not yet under- 
stood, and overlook not the mercies often bound up in 
them ; for we consider not sufficiently the good of evils, 
nor fairly compute the mercies of Providence in things 
afflictive at first-hand. Behind the snowy loaf is the 
mill-wheel, behind the mill is the wheat-field, on the 
wheat-field falls the sunlight, above the' sun is God. 

Any close observer of American politics must have 
noticed instances wherein apparently trivial circum- 
stances have changed the entire course of events. 
That Providence has overruled these apparent acci- 
dents for good must be maintained by all who believe 
in the beneficence of Deity and the active part of 
Providence in human affairs. Many times, however, 
the immediate result has so disappointed the wishes 
and hopes of the best men and women, that they are 
tempted to believed that Providence for once has 
lapsed, and forgotten to take charge of the course of 



PROVIDENCE. 571 

events. Some of these occasions are so near that it 
will be hard with many to 

" Assert eternal Providence 
And justify the ways of God to men." 

But there are others, where the passions which for a 
time have obscured human vision have passed away, 
and revealed the hand of Providence so plainly visible 
that even the men who at the time most doubted can 
see that, after all, God is supreme and is ruling the 
universe for good. To recall some of these providential 
paradoxes which have already righted themselves 
will prove instructive, and give faith for the future. 

Thirty-six years ago thousands of patriotic citizens 
fixed their hopes for the country on the election of 
Henry Clay as president. It was not to be. Fifteen 
thousand abolitionists in New York diverted their 
votes to Birney and elected Polk. The majority in 
New York State which decided the result was only 
five thousand one hundred and six. So narrow was 
the margin on which the future of the country de- 
pended. Yet to all human foresight the abolitionists, 
whose votes diverted from Clay had elected Polk, had 
made a grievous mistake. It hastened Texas annexa- 
tion and made the Mexican war inevitable. It involved 
such an aggrandizement of slavery as sixteen years 
later resulted in four years of civil war and rebellion 
against the Union. Had the Great Compromiser been 
chosen President in 1844 there would have been no 
Mexican war, and the slavery agitation would have 
been indefinitely postponed. Slavery itself, with all its 
horrors, might have lasted another hundred years, and 



57 2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

have been ended by a convulsion even more terrible 
than our civil conflict. Who shall say now that the 
defeat of Clay, with the sad after-consequences, was 
not better for the country and for the world than any 
other result could have been ? The horrors of our 
civil war of four years were less than would have fol- 
lowed the indefinite perpetuation and extension of 
human slavery. 

It is right enough for partisans of either cause to 
do their utmost for what they regard as essential to 
the country. Their efforts are a part of the means 
which Providence uses, and are therefore indispensable. 
But we must remember that over all God reigns, and 
that Providence is able to cause even the wrath of 
man to praise him, and the remainder of wrath He will 
restrain. Such a thought should most wholesomely 
restrain the violent excitement, at least of Christian 
men and women, in all political contests. 

There is not an unnecessary thing in existence, 
could we but understand it; not one of our experiences 
of life but is full of significance, could we but see it. 
Even misfortune is often the surest touchstone of 
human excellence. The most celebrated poet of Ger- 
many has said "that he who has not eaten his bread in 
tears, who has not spent nights of pain weeping on his 
bed, does not yet know a heavenly power." When 
painful events occur, they are perhaps sent only to try 
and prove us. If we stand firm in our hour of trial, 
this firmness gives serenity to the mind, which always 
feels satisfaction in acting conformably to duty. 

Carlyle says: "Through every star, through every 



PROVIDENCE. 573 

grass-blade, and most through every living soul, there 
beams the glory of a present God." In what strange 
quarries and stone-yards the stones for that celestial 
wall are being hewn. Out of the hillsides of humili- 
ated pride; deep in the darkness of crushed despair; 
in the fretting and dusty atmosphere of little cares ; in 
the hard, cruel contact that man has with man ; wher- 
ever souls are being tried and ripened, in whatever 
commonplace and homely ways — there God is hewing 
out the pillars of His temple. 

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes, 
and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We 
see in needleworks and embroideries, it is more pleas- 
ing to have a lively work upon a dark and solemn 
ground than to have a dark and melancholy work 
upon a lightsome ground : judge, therefore, of the 
pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye. Cer- 
tainly virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when 
they are burned or crushed ; for prosperity doth best 
discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue. 

Some time ago a boy was discovered in the streets, 
evidently bright and intelligent, but sick. A man who 
had the feeling of kindness strongly developed, went 
to him, shook him by the shoulder and asked him what 
he was doing there. 

"Waiting for God to come for me," said he. 

'" What do you mean ? " said the gentleman, 
touched by the pathetic tone of the answer and the 
condition of the boy, in whose eye and flushed face he 
.saw the evidence of fever. 

" God has sent for father and mother and little 



574 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

brother," said he, " and took them away to his home 
up in the sky, and mother told me when she was sick 
that God would take care of me. I have no home, no- 
body to give me anything, and I came out here and 
have been looking so long up in the sky for God to 
take me, as mother said he would. He will come, 
won't he? Mother never told a lie." 

" Yes, my lad," said the man, overcome with emo- 
tion. " He has sent me to take care of you." 

You should have seen his eyes flash and the smile 
of triumph break over his face, as he said : 

" Mother never told a lie, sir ; but you have been 
so long on the way." 

They who walk dejectedly and hang their harp on 
the willows, must first distrust Providence and adver- 
tise God's purpose and plan a failure, and bar the win- 
dows to the birds which, as in spring-time, come to 
sing in the soul. What many need, to make the world 
brighter and better, is to swallow a sunbeam now and 
then, that there may be more sunshine in the soul ; to 
come out of the dark and loathsome cellars and old 
ruins, the home of moles and bats, and build on the 
hilltops, where they can catch the earliest and latest 
sunshine, and the songs of the earliest and latest birds 
which sing. There is cheer enough all about us wait- 
ing to be ours, if we will only throw open the windows 
and unbar the doors and let it come in. 

The wonder of wonders to me, in the personal 
dealings of God with me, is the patience he has had 
with me ! Oh, how he has had to bear with me ! 
How he has borne with me! 



PROVIDENCE. 575 

When I was in England, a lady told me a sweet 
story illustrative of what it is to have Christ between 
us and everything else. She said she was wakened 
up by a very strange noise of pecking or something of 
that kind, and when she got up she saw a butterfly 
flying backward and forward inside the window-pane 
in great fright, and outside a sparrow pecking and try- 
ing to get in. The butterfly did not see the glass and 
expected every moment to be caught, and the spar- 
row did not see the glass and expected every minute 
to catch the butterfly, yet all the while that butterfly 
was as safe as if it had been three miles away, because 
of the glass between it and the sparrow. So it is with 
Christians who are abiding in Christ. His presence is 
between them and every danger. 

I do not believe that Satan understands about this 
mighty and invisible power that protects us, or else he 
would not waste his efforts by trying to get us. He 
must be like the sparrow — he does not see it; and 
Christians are like the butterfly — they do not see it,, 
and so they are frightened and flutter backward and 
forward in terror; but all the while Satan cannot 
touch the soul that has the Lord Jesus Christ between 
itself and him. 

We are not informed that when God created the 
world he did not decorate every portion of it alike 
beautiful, but we are authorized by his word to believe 
that if any spot received his peculiar consideration that 
was the garden of Eden. 

There luxuriated in rich variety all the beauties of 
nature which have elicited the admiration, and engaged 



$j6 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

the attention of all succeeding ages. There the rose, 
acknowledged queen of flowers, and the lily, fit 
emblem of maiden purity, grew spontaneous. There 
the lovely violet and the humble forget-me-not com- 
manded the same attention as did the proud, majestic 
magnolia, loftily waving its expansive foliage in the 
pure atmosphere of heaven. But when we turn from 
that consecrated enclosure — that favored spot of 
divine love — alius conjecture and supposition. 

The happiest conclusion is, that when God said, 
"Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding 
seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit," no section of the 
world was more prominently regarded than another. 
Doubtless, the most sequestered nooks and the most 
obscure places were then beautified and embellished 
by the prettiest of flowers; and who will think that 
those flowers were 

Born to blush unseen, 

And waste their sweetness on the desert air ? 

Have not the angels eyes? And did not they look 
down from their happy homes in heaven and unite in 
anthems of praise for what the great Despenser of all 
good had done for them. 






CHRISTIAN CHARITY. 577 



<i)HI^IS!FIAN (©HA^ITY. 

That man may breathe, but never lives, 
Who much receives, but nothing gives ; 
Whom none can love, whom none can thank 
Creation's blot, creation's blank. 
But he that marks, from day to day, 
In generous acts, his radiant way, 
Treads the same path the Saviour trod, 
The path to glory and to God. 

In this age of ostentation and selfishness Christian 
charity has almost lost its sweet meaning. Instead of 
the pure, spontaneous offering of the heart, owing all 
value to sentiment, it has become a humiliating insult, 
resorted to by the rich to remind the poor of their in- 
feriority and dependence. Great attention to public 
manifestations is no evidence that true Christian 
charity exists. The most selfish, heartless being on 
earth, governed alone by the rule of self-interest, re- 
gardless of the responsibility devolving on every indi- 
vidual to contribute to the comfort of the indigent, to 
4 ' clothe the naked and feed the hungry," can converse 
as glibly of relieving distress as though it were the 
fragrant breathing of a benevolent heart. 

Men look upon their acts of mercy, as things 
purely voluntary, that they have no obligation to ; and 
the effect of it is this, that they are apt to think very 
highly of themselves, when they have performed any, 
though never so mean, but never blame themselves, 
though they omit all : which is a very dangerous, 
but withal a. very natural fruit of the former per- 
suasion. If there be any charities, wherein justice is 
37 






578 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

not concerned, they are those which for the height and 
degrees of them are not made matter of strict duty, 
that is, are not in those degrees commanded by God. 
And even after these, it will be very reasonable for us 
to labor ; but that cannot be done without taking the 
lower and necessary degrees in our way; and there- 
fore let our first care be for them. 

We are not, however, considering superficial or 
affected charity, but that which had its origin in 
heaven ; that which suffereth long, envieth not, vaunt- 
eth not itself, seeketh not its own, thinketh no evil, and 
rejoiceth not in iniquity ; that which beareth all things, 
believeth all things good, hopeth all things, endureth 
all things, for righteousness sake. 

Our Master blessed the poor; His faith led Him 
among the lowly of the earth. He did not undertake 
to do His work by proxy, but He came Himself and asso- 
ciated with men in their low estate ; visited them and 
talked with them; comforted them, fed them when 
hungry, healed them when sick, and thus not only min- 
istered blessings to those who were in temporal need, 
but also bore our sicknesses, carried our sorrows, and 
was made "perfect through suffering," and now, 
" touched with the feeling of our infirmities," He knows 
how to sympathize with those that are in trouble and 
distress. 

And He sends His disciples "to be His representa- 
tives in works of mercy on the earth, and teaches them 
that it is more blessed to give than to receive. As He 
was, so are we in this world ; and to those who sit in sad- 
ness, solitary and distressed ; to the poor and to them 



CHRISTIAN CHARITY. 579 

that have no helpers; to those who say in their de- 
spairing hours, " There is no God and no helper," He 
would have us go, and with the warmth of Christian 
friendship and the sympathy that is born from above, 
prove to them that God still -lives, that Christ still loves, 
that there is blessing and mercy in store for the lost, 
that there are hearts that feel for their sorrows, and 
eyes that weep for their woes; and that they have but 
to enter into the fellowship of the family of God to 
find welcome and blessing more than we can tell, which 
shall crown their earthly lives with abiding joy, and fit 
them for the eternal bliss of the world that is to come. 

Every miracle that Christ did was an act of mercy, 
and designed to cure as well as to convince. "He 
went about doing good ;" he conversed among men 
like a walking balm, breathing health and recovery 
wheresoever he came. 

Charity is the twin sister of humility, and they 
reciprocally strengthen each other, subduing all malice, 
all hypocrisy, and all evil speajdng, spontaneously sug- 
gesting all that is forgiving, candid and compassionate; 
striving always to think others better than themselves; 
never severe on the frailties of others, because all are 
frail ; declaiming not on a mote in another's eye, be- 
cause none are exempt from flaws. 

Genuine charity leads its possessor to scenes of 
poverty, misery and crime, gives simplicity to the char- 
acter, levels the differences of the mind and station, 
facilitates a mutual flow of affection, and teaches the 
important truth that the efficacy of means of useful- 
ness depends not on their imposing and expensive 



580 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

character, but upon their skillful and earnest appli- 
cation. 

Charity glorifies humanity. Its synonyn is love. 
It goes forth to meet the wants and necessities of the 
sorrow-stricken and oppressed. Wherever there is 
cruelty, or ignorance, or misery, sympathy stretches 
forth its hand to console and alleviate. The sight 
of grief, the sound of a groan, takes hold of the sym- 
pathetic mind, and will not let it go. Out of char- 
ity and justice some of the greatest events of mod- 
ern times have emanated. Need we mention the abo- 
lition of slavery in England, America and France ; the 
education of the untaught ; the spread of Sunday 
schools ; the efforts of the spread of temperance ; the 
leveling up of the down-trodden classes, in which men 
and women of the best classes take so much interest ? 

There is room for the sympathetic help of all. He 
who loves God loves his neighbor — poor or rich — and 
cannot fail to be just, true and merciful. " The just 
man," said Massillon, " is above the world, and supe- 
rior to all events. All creatures are subject to him, 
and he subject unto God alone." To tend the sick, 
to visit the widow and fartherless in their afflictions, to 
set on foot or to help in the schemes of benevolence, 
in elevating the poor — all this needs diligence, merci- 
fulness and love. 

Many women, young and old, nobly devote' them- 
selves to work such as this. They go into the courts 
and alleys of our towns and cities, and nurse those 
who might lie and die but for their services. Neither 
their hands nor their minds are stained by performing 



CHRISTIAN CHARITY. 58 1 

the humblest and most repelling offices for their suffer- 
ing fellow-creatures. Need we- mention the work of 
Mrs. Walker among the poor girls in Poplar, Miss 
Octavia Hill in the West End courts, Mrs. Vickars 
among the fallen women at Brighton, Miss Robinson 
among the soldiers at Portsmouth? It must be con- 
fessed that these are exceptional workers, and that 
the world is still crowded with the helpless, the fallen, 
the poor and the destitute, without any help. 

We have lately had taken from us Mary Carpenter, 
a true ^sister of charity. In the course of her active 
life she devoted herself to the reclamation of the 
neglected poor. She founded and superintended a 
reformatory institution in Bristol, the success of which 
proved a revelation to the country at large. Armed 
with purity of purpose, she went into courts and alleys 
through which a policeman could scarcely walk. The 
horrors of the back slums were opened to her sight. 
Nothing daunted, nothing disgusted her. She obtained 
the children for her Ragged Schools from these miser- 
able quarters. She went to work with an intrepidity 
equal to that of John Howard himself. Her pen was 
always at work, keeping the subject continually before 
the public. At length she won a great victory, for the 
Government adopted her project, and established re- 
formatory and industrial schools, which have done so 
much for the abandoned classes. There are thousands 
of men in our army and navy, and in all our industries, 
who have reason to bless the name of Mary Carpenter. 
Age did not stay her merciful work. In her sixtieth 
year she went out to India, to plant the seeds of her 



582 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

educational system in the Eastern world. She paid in 
all four visits to India — the last being in 1876, when 
she was approaching her seventieth year. She lived 
to see the fruits of her labors springing up in all direc- 
tions — in a generation of men and women, who, but 
for her, would have been left in the surroundings of 
vice and crime; What can be said of such women 
and of their noble sisters in such self-denying labors, 
but that they constitute the honor and hope of the 
human race ? 

Always proportion thy charity to the strength of 
thy estate, lest God proportion thy estate to the 
weakness of thy charity. Let the lips of the poor 
be the trumpet of thy gift, lest in seeking applause 
thou lose thy reward. Nothing is more pleasing to 
God than an open hand and a closed mouth. So 
far is charity from impoverishing, that what is given 
away, like vapors emitted from the earth, returns in 
showers of blessing into the bosom of the person that 
gave it, and his offering is not the worse, but infinitely 
better for it. Money spent on myself may be a mill- 
stone about my neck ; money spent on others may 
give me wings like the eagles. 

It is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind move 
in charity, rest in providence, and turn on the poles of 
truth. True charity consists not so much in doing 
what our hands find to do, as doing it cheerfully. 
Christian charity does not embrace the individual, who, 
with sin unrepented of, boldly demands its sympathy 
and respect. The divinity of charity consists in reliev- 
ing a man's needs before they are forced upon us. 



CHRISTIAN CHARITY. 583 



What a blessed inspiration that led to the writing 
of these lines: 

Trust not to each accusing tongue, 
As most weak persons do ; 
But still believe that story false 
Which ought not to be true. 

Could we all act fully upon this motto, how many 
heartaches and saddened lives would be saved. 

We take the following suggestive, pleasing and 
useful thoughts from a very old book, called " The 
Whole Duty of Man," and would commend the peru- 
sal of the whole volume to all persons who can obtain it. 

" But there is yet a farther excellency of this grace ; 
it guards the mind and secures it from several great 
and dangerous vices ; as first, from envy. This is by 
the apostle taught us to be the property of charity. 

" And indeed common reason may confirm this to 
us ; for envy is a sorrow at the prosperity of another, 
and therefore must needs be directly contrary to that 
desire of it which we showed before was the effect of 
love : so that if love bear sway in the heart, it will cer- 
tainly chase out envy. How vainly then do these pre- 
tend to this virtue, that are still grudging and repining 
at every good hap of others ? 

".It is true, if this virtue were to be exercised but 
towards some sort of persons, it might consist with 
malice to others, it being possible for a man that bit- 
terly hates one, to love another. But we are to take 
notice that this charity must not be so confined, but 
must extend and stretch itself to all men in the world, 
particularly to enemies, or else it is not that divine 
charity commended to us by Christ. The loving of 



584 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

friends and benefactors is so low a pitch that the very- 
publicans and sinners, the worst of men, were able -to 
attain to it. And therefore it is not counted reward- 
able in a disciple of Christ ; no, he expects we should 
soar higher and therefore hath set us this more spiritual 
and excellent precept of loving our enemies, and who- 
ever does not thus, will never be owned by him for a 
disciple. We are therefore to conclude that all which 
has been said concerning this charity of the affections, 
must be understood to belong as well to our spiteful 
enemy as our most obliging friend. 

" If one whom we know to be an innocent person 
be slandered and traduced, charity binds us to do 
what we may for the declaring his innocency, and de- 
livering him from that false imputation, and that not 
only by witnessing when we are called to it, but by a 
voluntary offering our testimony on his behalf; or if 
the accusation be not before a court of justice, and so 
there be no place for that our more solemn testimony, 
but that it be only a slander tossed from one to 
another, yet even there we are to do what we can to 
clear him, by taking all occasions publicly to declare 
what we know of his innocency. But even to the 
guilty there is some charity of this kind to be per- 
formed, sometimes by concealing the fault, if it be such 
that no other part of charity to others make it neces- 
sary to discover it, or it be not so notorious as that 
it will be sure to betray itself. The wounds of reputa- 
tion are of all others the most incurable, and therefore 
it may well become Christian chanty to prevent them, 
even where they have been deserved ; and perhaps. 



CHRISTIAN CHARITY. 585 

such a tenderness in hiding die fault may sooner bring 
the offender to repentance, if it be seconded (as it 
ought to be) with all earnestness of private admoni- 
tion. But if the fault be such, that it be not to be 
concealed, yet still there may be place for this charity, 
in extenuating it and lessening it as far as the circum- 
stances will bear. As, if it were done suddenly and 
rashly, charity will allow some abatement of the cen- 
sure, which would belong to a designed and deliberate 
act ; and so proportionably in other circumstances. 
But the most frequent exercises of this charity happen 
towards those, of whose either innocency or guilt we 
have no knowledge, but are by some doubtful actions 
brought under suspicion. And here we must remem- 
ber, that it is the property of love, not to think evil, to 
judge the best; and therefore we are both to abstain 
from uncharitable conclusions of them ourselves, and 
as much as lies in us, to keep others from them also, 
and so endeavor to preserve the credit of our neigh- 
bor; which is oftentimes as much shaken by unjust 
suspicions, as it would be by the truest accusation." 

Pure in her aims and in her temper mild ; 
Her wisdom seems the wisdom of a child. 
She makes excuses when she might condemn ; 
Reviled by those who hate her, prays for them. 
Suspicion lurks not in her artless breast — 
The worst suggested she believes the best. 
Not soon provoked, however stung and teased, 
And, if perchance made angry, soon appeased; 
She rather waives, than will dispute her right, 
And, injured, makes forgiveness her delight. 

Cowper* 



586 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 



<9HE ftfo^LD'S f?OPE. 

Have you a hope of heaven ? Then you are rich. 
When Alexander was preparing- for his famous Per- 
sian expedition, he gave away the most of his crown 
possessions. He was asked what he had kept for him- 
self. " My hopes," he said. Oh, how rich we are if 
we have a hope of heaven through the Saviour! Every- 
thing may go but that, and all will go at death, and yet 
you can say you are rich in your hopes. 

Hope in God produces cheerfulness. It sees a sil- 
ver lining to every dark cloud, a certain victory in 
every fierce battle, a joyful harvest amid the dull cares 
of seed-time, eternal life beyond death's dark, repulsive 
river, rest to succeed the weariness of toil, and crowns 
of splendor for the dust-covered pilgrim. Hope won- 
derfully invigorates the spirit when it takes hold of the 
tearless, sorrowless, deathless world to come. 

Said one who was eminent for his piety: "I have 
known what the enjoyment and advantages of this life 
are, and what the more refined pleasures which learn- 
ing and intellectual power can bestow, and with all the 
experience that threescore years can give, I now, on 
the eve of my departure, declare to you that health is 
a great blessing ; that competence gained by honest 
industry is a great blessing; and a great blessing it is 
to have kind, faithful and loving, friends and relatives; 
but the greatest of all blessings, as it is the most 
ennobling of all privileges, is to be, indeed, a Christian." 



THE WORLD'S HOPE. 587 

"The life of Christianity," said Luther, " consists 
in possessive pronouns." It is one thing to say, "Christ 
is a Saviour;" it is quite another to say, "He is my 
Saviour and my Lord." The. devil can say the first ; 
the true Christian alone can say the second. The 
human soul has the conviction, however dim and un- 
formed it may be, that God is, and that He is the 
rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Faith in 
God is the acceptance of this conviction. It is a con- 
scious, voluntary act, whereby the soul passes out of 
its isolation into a fellowship with God. 

It is easy for people to say they do not believe in 
Christianity — that is, in its corruptions ; but the spirit 
of it has so permeated our modern world that many a 
fierce skeptic is a good Christian without knowing it. 
He can deny but he cannot get away from the influence 
of that divine morality which Christians recognize as 
their sun of righteousness. It may not shine — mists 
may obscure it, so that one is prone to doubt its very 
existence ; but without it, daylight would not be there. 

What thou shouldst appear before God, that should 
God appear to thee ! He who is kind and gentle and 
of great compassion, requires the meek, the kind, the 
humble and compassionate. Love him who drew thee 
from the lake of misery and from the miry clay. 
Choose him for thy friend above all friends, who, when 
thou art bereft of all things, can alone remain to thee. 
In the day of thy burial, when every friend is gone, he 
will not forsake thee, but will defend thee from devour- 
ing foes, lead thee through an unknown region, bring 
thee to the streets of the heavenly Zion, and place thee 



588 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

with angels in the presence of his majesty, where thou 
shalt hear the angelic melody, Holy, holy, holy! There 
is the chant of gladness, there the voice of exultation 
and salvation, of thanksgiving and praise and perpetual 
hallelujah ! There is accumulated bliss and super- 
eminent glory ! 

Ancient history speaks of two brothers, one of 
whom found guilty of a heinous crime, was condemned 
to death and about to be led forth to execution ; the 
other, patriotic and brave, had signalized himself in the 
service of his country, and had lost a hand in obtain- 
ing an illustrious victory for the state. Just as the 
sentence of condemnation was pronounced upon his 
unhappy brother, he entered the court and silently 
raised his handless arm in view of all. The judges 
saw it, arrested the execution and pardoned the guilty 
one for the sake of the service and the sufferings of 
his heroic brother. So may not our elder Brother, as 
He appears in our nature before the throne, silently 
and efficiently plead for us by the very scars he 
bears ? 

Christianity does not consist in a proud priesthood, 
a costly church, an imposing ritual, a fashionable 
throng, a pealing organ, loud responses to the creed 
and reiterated expressions of reverence for the name 
of Christ, but in the spirit that was in Jesus, the spirit 
of filial trust in God, and ardent, impartial, overflowing 
love to man. Christ presents no harsh front, pre- 
scribes no fearful ordeal. He is better than law or 
church. He appears as divine love ; and offers you 
immediate safety in his arms. This is acting like a 



THE WORLD'S HOPE. 589 

God. Meet his invitation with your faith, and so act 
like a man made in the image of God. 

There is many a wounded heart without a contrite 
spirit. The ice may be broken into a thousand pieces 
— it is ice still ; but expose it to the beams of the Sun of 
Righteousness, and then it will melt. The cross is the 
only ladder high enough to touch Heaven's threshold. 
It was the remark of John Newton, when his memory 
had almost completely gone, that he could never forget 
two things: First, that he was a great sinner; Second, 
that Jesus Christ was a great and mighty Saviour. 

We are explicitly taught, however, that we cannot 
do any thing which will enable us to inherit eternal 
life. We can do no thing but receive the grace of God, 
which brings salvation. The condition of the accep- 
tance of the grace of God is not doing any thing to 
bring salvation, but it is the receiving of the offered 
grace of God which brings salvation. The very per- 
formance of the condition, therefore, is a virtual sur- 
render to the sovereign mercy of God, in order to the 
soul's salvation at the hand of a merciful God. 

We claim rightfully, rationally, the choice of our 
destiny. And there is an appeal to our reason by the 
powerful motive of love — a love that is life. A Sav- 
iour is ready, able and willing to redeem us. Will we 
accept? Will we choose Him and live? Will we 
make our election sure? Will we save our souls? 
Shall the great reprieve that props our house of clay 
be ours in vain ? Shall the love of God, as exhibited 
to us in the glorious plan of salvation, be ours in vain ? 
O let us save our souls! 



59° WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

"For what is a man profited if he shall gain the 
whole world and loose his own soul ! " 

The desire felt by every one for bliss which cannot 
be realized on earth, is a sure proof of the soul's immor- 
tality ; it is in vain to endeavor to satiate its yearnings 
with earthly pleasures, riches or honors. 

Says the Rev. Charles Spurgeon : " Brethren, 
believe in the power of the cross, for the conversion of 
those around you. Do not say of any man, that he 
cannot be saved. The blood of Jesus is omnipotent. 
Do not say of any district that it is too sunken, or of 
any class of men that they are too far gone. The 
word of the cross reclaims the lost. Believe it to be 
the power of God and you shall find it so. Believe in 
Christ crucified, and preach boldly in His name, and 
you shall see great things and gladsome things. Let 
no man's heart fail him! Christ hath died! Atone- 
ment is complete! God is satisfied! Peace is pro- 
claimed! Heaven glitters with proofs of mercy, already 
bestowed upon ten thousand times ten thousand! 
Hell is trembling, Heaven adoring, Earth waiting. 
Advance, ye saints to certain victory! You shall 
overcome through the blood of the Lamb." 

Field joining field, waving and laden with autumn's 
golden grain: Minerva standing by, industriously, 
gloriously analyzing, compounding, increasing, com- 
manding the power of wealth; there rising in the 
majesty of her own queenly power, to gather and 
control productive industry from still brighter fields, 
of larger dimensions and nobler range, in yonder star 
lit vault whose Husbandman giveth the increase ; 






THE WORLDS HOPE. 59 1 

increasing, producing, expanding,, in the proudest 
nobility of man ! — this were a higher happiness than 
earth has ever known, and yet it were vanity; for the 
golden bowl is broken at the fountain, the daughter of 
music laid low, and man goeth to his long home. 
Depravity — universal and destructive depravity — the 
demon spirit that rears its altars at the expense of 
every earthly good, and then brings as its oblation 
purity and hope, which it consumes with fiendish 
delight, has made a wreck of human happiness ; and 
the undying part of man unsatisfied by mere temporal 
good, weeps with agonizing bitterness over the 
mockery of life. Nor does death itself, the end of all 
things sublunary, dispel its anguish; upon the graves 
of the departed it keeps its nightly vigils and its 
eternal moanings. 

When did the turbid tide of life roll at the com- 
mand of kings, or the crown of the dead give security 
to the heir ? The wealth of the world, the wisdom of 
Solomon, and the power of crowned heads combined ! 
— they dwindle into insignificance when put in the 
balance with the immortal spirit of man. " As the 
mortal to the immortal ; as the dead to the living!" 

Wisdom is powerless to attempt the measure of an 
argument. ' " For what shall a man give in exchange 
for his soul?" 

Nothing is worth a thought beneath, 
But how I may escape the death 
That never, never dies. 

This great preparation of the soul should be the grand 
object of human pursuit. 

The minister must be faithful. He is set for the 



59 2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

defense of the truth. Men are to learn of the teach- 
ings of the Bible from the pulpit. They have no other 
means of knowing — no means that they will lay hold 
of.. They will not study the Bible for themselves. 
Hence their dependence upon the pulpit. And the 
reason why — one of the reasons, surely, why there is 
such a low type of spiritual and moral life among men 
is because there is such a low and imperfect standard 
of Bible knowledge among the people. Doctrine and 
life are closely related. Doctrine is the aliment by 
which the life is sustained. As good food puts sound, 
solid muscle upon the bony structure of the system, 
giving to the external form beauty and symmetry, even 
so doctrine, when digested, assimilated, rounds out the 
Christian character into perfectional symmetry, and 
causes us to grow into Christ, our living Head. 

While Christianity is essentially a life, it is so be- 
cause it is a doctrine as well. In experience, it is a 
doctrine before it becomes a life. It is a life, because 
it is a doctrine. The distinction which we often hear 
made between doctrinal and practical preaching is 
mostly a figment. No preaching can be effective nor in 
any high sense practical,, unless it have a strong infusion 
of doctrine, which must be to our sermons what bone 
is to the body, what rock is to the mountain, what prin- 
ciple is to life — their solidity and strength. The pulpit 
that does not deal judiciously in doctrine, that in these 
times of prevailing error and loose thinking does not 
set itself for the defense of the truth, does not earnestly 
contend for the faith once delivered to the saints, and 
grapple and match itself with the questions of the day, 



THE WORLD S HOPE. 593 

which are assailing " the truth as it is in Jesus," will be 
like a man all muscle and adipose, or a hillock of sand, 
that is being washed away by every storm that beats 
upon it. 

The chief purpose of Christian knowledge is to 
promote the great end of Christian life. This knowl- 
edge is best acquired ai\d the duties consequent on it 
best performed by reading books of plain piety and 
practical devotion, and not by entering into the endless 
feuds and engaging in the unprofitable contentions of 
partial controversialists. Nothing is more unamiable 
than the narrow spirit of party zeal ; nor is anything 
more disgusting than to hear a man deal out judg- 
ments, and denounce anathemas against any one who 
happens to differ from him in some opinion, perhaps 
of no real importance, and which, it is probable, he may 
be just as wrong in advocating as the object of his cen- 
sure is in rejecting. 

John Muller, a learned Swiss writer, was deeply 
engaged in historical studies at Cassel, in the year 
1 782. Indefatigable in research, he wrote to his friend, 
Charles Bonnet, the naturalist, that he had studied all 
the ancient authors without one exception, in the order 
of time in which they lived, and he had not omitted to 
take note of a single remarkable fact. Among other 
works it occurred to him to glance at the New Testa- 
ment, and we give in his own words the impression it 
produced upon him : 

" How shall I express what I have found here? I had 
not read it for many years, and when I began I was pre- 
judiced against it. The light which blinded Paul in his 

38 



594 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

journey to Damascus was not more prodigious or 
more surprising to him than what I suddenly discov- 
ered was to me — the accomplishment of every hope, 
the perfection of all philosophy, the explanation of all 
revolutions, the key of all the apparent contradictions 
of the material and moral world, of life and im- 
mortality. I see the connection of all the revolutions 
in Europe and Asia with that suffering people to whom 
were committed the promises. I see religion appear- 
ing at the moment most favorable to its establishment, 
and in the way most likely to promote its reception. 
The world appearing to be arranged solely with refer- 
ence to the religion of the Saviour ; I can understand 
nothing if such a religion be not from God. I have 
not read any books about it; but in studying all that 
happened before this epoch, I have always found some- 
thing wanting; and since I have known our Lord, all 
is clear to my sight; with him, there is no problem that 
I cannot solve. Forgive me for thus praising the sun, 
as a blind man who has suddenly received the gift of 
sight." 

The effects of the work of Christ are even to the 
unbeliever indisputable and historical. It expelled 
cruelty ; it curbed passion ; it branded suicide ; it 
punished and repressed an execrable infanticide ; it 
drove the shameless impurities of heathendom into a 
congenial darkness. There was hardly a class whose 
wrongs it did not remedy. It rescued the gladiator, it 
freed the slave, it protected the captive, it nursed the 
sick, it sheltered the orphan, it elevated the woman, it 
shrouded as with a halo of sacred innocence the tender 



THE WORLD S HOPE. 595 

years of the child. In every region of life its ameliorat- 
ing influence was felt. It changed pity from a vice 
into a virtue. It elevated poverty from a curse into a 
beatitude. It ennobled labor from a vulgarity into a 
dignity and a duty. It sanctified marriage from little 
more than a burdensome convention into little less 
than a blessed sacrament. It revealed for the first 
time the angelic beauty of a purity of which men had 
despaired, and of a meekness at which they had utterly 
scoffed. It created the very conception of charity, and 
broadened the limits of its obligation from the narrow 
circle of a neighborhood to the widest horizons of a 
race. 

And while it thus involved the idea of humanity as 
a common brotherhood, even where its tidings were 
not believed- — all over the world, wherever its tidings 
■were believed it cleansed the life and elevated the soul 
of each individual man. And in all lands were it has 
moulded the characters of its true believers it has 
created hearts pure, and lives peaceful, and homes 
sweet. 

Let your refuge be wholly built up of divine truth. 
Do not try to comfort yourself with a lie. Dear 
friend, let truth be all in all to you. Counterfeit coin 
enriches no man. Have nothing to do with false and 
flattering teachings. If your hope is not built on solid, 
substantial matters of fact, give it up, and get one that 
is. If your hope of being saved depends on a dream, 
or a voice you thought you heard in the air, or some 
other such nonsense, put it away. Build upon your 
Lord's life, death and resurrection; build upon God's 



59^ WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

promises ; build by the work of the Holy Ghost with 
faith, and you shall have the reward of eternal life. 
In a word, rest on Jesus, the eternal Son of God, made 
flesh, and bleeding to the death for man ; build on his 
complete work and there only, and then if winds blow 
and waters rage you shall be safe, safe forever. 

Fathers on earth cannot always help us ; they are 
on our level ; themselves enfeebled and perplexed. 
But when Jesus says, " Say, Our Father which art in 
Heaven," he raises our view to the greatness and the 
power of God. There, in heaven, he has leisure to 
help us. He has the infinite perfection that leaves 
him free to bear the burden of others. He has the 
resources from which he can supply our need, and the 
place of vantage from which he can influence all that 
happens. 

" Say what you will," says Dr. Martineau, " of the 
failures and errors of Christian enthusiasm, no zeal 
which you might deem more rational has done half as 
much for suffering humanity. When it has missed its 
own ends, it has reached others to which no colder 
zeal would ever have addressed itself. But for the 
church, where would have been the school in Christen- 
dom? But for the missionary army, baffled and 
beaten as it has often been, where would the advanc- 
ing lines of civilization have stood, which are every- 
where reducing the barbarism of the world ? But for 
the reverence felt for the souls of men, how long 
should we have had to wait for the various forms of 
pity and healing for the body? Christians may have 
attempted many foolish things ; but who have effected 



THE WORLDS HOPE. 597 

more wise ones ? They may have said too much of 
despising the world ; but who have done more to 
render it habitable?" And again, "If once, among 
the poorest, the living springs of religion are touched, 
and a family becomes God-fearing, a transformation 
forthwith sets in; the rags disappear; the furniture 
returns; the sickness abates; the children brighten; 
the quarrels cease ; the hard times are tided over 
better than before ; and sorrow, once dull and sullen, 
is alive with hope and trust." 

Mr. Spurgeon says that he was once in a crowded 
court-room when the Judge directed that a Mr. Brown 
should be called as a witness. The crier shouted out 
" Mr. Brown ! " The name was passed out into the 
crowded lobby and to the street, " Brown — Brown." 
Presently a little, insignificant man came pushing 
through the throng, and some one said, "Who are 
you ? " He replied, u I am Brown." " Who is that ? " 
" Nobody," replied the little man, " only that 1 was told 
to come!' So every human being that carries an immor- 
tal soul in his breast — be he a coal-heaver or a scullion 
— has a right to say, " I was told to come." Jesus died 
on Calvary for this very purpose. The meaning of his 
last pathetic cry on the cross was — redemption is fin- 
ished, and every sinner may come and be saved. Old 
School and New School, Calvinist and Wesleyan, 
agree in this, that no man need perish for want of an 
atonement. 

In the Celestial home there will be no sadness, for 
God himself shall wipe away all tears from the eyes of 
His saints. The wailings of despair will there be 



59^ WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

changed to the triumphant songs of praise. All will 
strike their golden harps to the sweetest melody, and 
will be clothed in spotless garments, all will bear the 
conquering palm, all wear a victor's crown. 



F^ea^'s-Gase. 

It is the secret sympathy, 

The silver link, the silken tie, 

Which heart to heart, and mind to mind, 

In body and in soul can bind. 

Sir. W. Scott. 

Great injury is done to the interests of religion, 
by placing it in a gloomy and unamiable light. It is 
sometimes spoken of as if it would actually make a 
handsome woman ugly, or a young one wrinkled. But 
can anything be more absurd than to represent the 
beauty of holiness as the source of deformity? 

It is a strange notion which prevails in the world, 
that religion only belongs to the old and the melan- 
choly, and that it is not worth while to pay the least 
attention to it, while we are capable of attending to 
anything else. When the senses are palled with ex- 
cessive gratification ; when the eye is tired with seeing 
and the ear with hearing; when the spirits are so sunk, 
that "the grasshopper is become a burden," how shall 
the blunted apprehension be capable of understanding 
a new science, or the worn-out heart be able to relish 
a new pleasure. 

When the saintly Payson was dying, he exclaimed, 



HEART S-EASE. 599 

"I long to hand a full cup of happiness to every human 
being." This was the language of a heart thoroughly 
purged of all selfish affection, and filled with the spirit 
of that love which led our adorable Jesus to give his 
life for human redemption. 

If every Christian would go out daily among men 
filled with such longing for human happiness what 
marvelous changes would soon be wrought in human 
society ! The selfish element would be eliminated 
from the dealings of the Christian business man. Not 
justice merely, but benevolence would center into his 
everyday trade. The same spirit would rule his home 
and church life. He would become an incarnation of 
good will towards all, and would so preach the gospel 
by his deeds that men would see his good works and 
glorify his Heavenly Father. The spirit of Payson is 
worthy of every man's imitation. Happy he who can 
truthfully say, "I long to hand a cup of happiness to 
every human being." 

Why should we insist on bearing our own cares, 
when God is ready to bear them for us ? Why do we 
magnify them, and multiply them, and brood over 
them, as if in so doing we could relieve ourselves or 
make them seem fewer and lighter? Let us go with 
them at once to him, knowing that it is as self-righteous 
to keep our cares as our sins from him. Let us go to 
him with thanksgiving as well as prayer. Oh, how 
thanksgiving lightens all burdens and scatters all 
shadows ! How quickly care leaves us when we 
rebuke it with " Bless the Lord, O my soul ! " 

There never was a man or woman converted, from 



600 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

one end of the world to the other, who did not love 
the revealed will of God. Just as a child born into 
the world desires naturally the milk provided for its 
nourishment, so does a soul born again desire the 
sincere milk of the Word. There is a common mark 
of all the children of God ; they " delight in the law of 
the Lord." 

The difficulty which most people have in religion 
is to bring the thought of God into their daily lives. 
His very greatness makes it hard to connect Him with 
homely, every*day matters. We get some sense of 
Him in church, or in the prayer-meeting, or in rare 
hours of exalted feeling. But when we go into the 
busy world, where most of our life is spent, God fades 
away into a heaven that is farther off than the blue sky 
above our heads. 

This is a great loss to us. It is neglect on our 
part of our highest opportunity. God walks with us, 
in closest nearness, at every moment. There is in 
Him, if we could learn to take it, a provision of help- 
fulness, of sympathy, of sufficiency, for every step in 
the whole round of our daily life. The very things 
that seem insignificant and without spiritual meaning 
are set around us by God as a part of our education. 
And if we habitually recognize his presence in them 
all, the incidents of business, and our household care 
and daily walk would become threads of gold, holding 
us in the sweetest, noblest friendship with our Heav- 
enly Father. How it would smooth family friction, 
and scatter clouds of discontent, to yield to the infalli- 
ble Disposer of all events ! How would sorrow be 




E A IT'S -EASE 



FOP, WELL-SPPJ1I03 OF TRUTH 



HEART' S-EASE. 60 1 

soothed and softened, if the Comforter, instead of 
being an occasional guest, dwelt in our homes, an 
abiding, real presence. 

As the ivy twines around the oak, so does misery 
and misfortune encompass the happiness of man. 
Felicity, pure and unalloyed felicity, is not a plant of 
earthly growth ; her gardens are the skies. A loving 
confidence in the God we have offended is the key to 
his heart, the key which unlocks the* treasury of his 
grace. Make a journey every day to three mountains. 
Go to Sinai, and see your sins ; go to Calvary and be- 
hold the Lamb of God ; go to Zion and view the 
heavenly city. We cannot live on probabilities. The 
faith in which we can live bravely and die in peace 
must be a certainty, so far as it professes to be a faith 
at all, or it is nothing. 

"Consolation ! " There is music in the word. Like 
David's harp, it charms away the spirit of melancholy. 
It was a distinguished honor to Barnabas to be called 
the " son of consolation." Nay, it is one of the illus- 
trious names of a greater than Barnabas, for the Lord 
Jesus is " the consolation of Israel." " Everlasting 
consolation." Here is the cream of all, the spikenard 
very precious, for the eternity of comfort is the crown- 
ing glory of it. This makes an estate worth having, 
when a man may hold its fee simple in perpetuity for- 
ever. A man works to make money, and after toiling 
hard he finds himself the owner of it, and it is a con- 
solation to him ; but it is not an everlasting consola- 
tion, for he may lose or he may spend all his treasure, 



602 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

or he may be compelled to leave it. It cannot be, at 
best, more than a temporary consolation. 

A man toils hard for knowledge. He acquires it; 
he becomes an eminent scholar ; his name is famous — 
this is a consolation to him for all his toil. But it can- 
not last long; for when he feels the headache, or the 
heartache, his degrees and his diplomas cannot cheer 
him. Or should his soul become a prey to despond- 
ency, he may turn over many a learned tome before 
he will find a balm for a broken heart. 

All earth-born consolations are in their essence 
fleeting, and in their existence short-lived. They are 
brilliant and evanescent as the rainbow hues of a soap- 
bubble. But as to the consolations God gives to His 
people, they fade not, neither do they lose their fresh- 
ness. They can stand all tests — the shock of trial, the 
flames of persecution, the lapse of years ; nay, they 
can even endure death itself. What is this " everlasting 
consolation"? It includes a sense of pardoned sin. 
A Christian man has received in his heart the witness 
of the Spirit that his iniquities are put away like a 
cloud, and his transgressions like a thick cloud. Union 
to the risen Lord is a consolation of the most abiding 
order — it is in fact " everlasting consolation." And 
this consolation, this " heart's ease," can be seen in the 
face of such a redeemed soul, as surely as the sunshine 
can be seen upon the face of the waters. We have 
in our illustration the face of one who has evidently 
sat long at the feet of the Master, as did Mary, and 
there has drunk of His Spirit. 

The question whether God exists is simply the 



heart's-ease. 603 

question whether all things in the universe are gov- 
erned by the forces of wisdom and goodness — and 
thus that every combination of circumstances will be 
made to issue in the highest good. When we are in 
trouble, it is hard to answer this question with a con- 
fident affirmative. We tremble lest the evil should 
be triumphing, lest ignorance and malevolence may not, 
after all, be the dominant principles in the universe. 
But despair is blank atheism ; it is an abandonment of 
belief in the rule of wisdom and goodness. Even 
anxiety partakes of this error; — it is a question- 
ing whether, after all, there be what we call God. 
But if a man truly and fully believes that all the affairs 
of the universe are controlled by wisdom and good- 
ness, he cannot be troubled in mind, however dark 
may be the immediate prospect. 

Men may create philosophies, they may turn the 
gospel itself into a cold abstraction, but the practical 
truth remains that the Christ who saves, comforts, and 
lifts the intolerable burden of sorrow or of sin, comes 
now as of old — comes as a living, loving, personal 
presence, human in sympathy, divine in power. Our 
need and our consciousness of it form our strongest 
claim upon Him and the best preparation for Him. 

Try to take cheerful views of divine things. Dwell 
on your mercies. Look at the bright as well as the 
dark sides. Do not cherish gloomy thoughts. Mel- 
ancholy is no friend to devotion. It greatly hin- 
ders the usefulness of many. It falls upon a con- 
tented life like a drop of ink on white paper, which is 
not the less stain because it carries no meaning with it. 



604 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

Let your soul rove through the truths of Scripture 
as the happy herds through the green pastures. 

The great distinction between the religion revealed 
in the Gospel and all other religions known to the 
world is that it comes as precious balm to the broken- 
hearted. No religion ever appeared in the world 
whose natural tendency was so much directed to pro- 
mote the peace and happiness of mankind. It makes 
right reason a law in every possible definition of the 
word. And therefore, even supposing it to have been 
purely a human invention, it had been the most amia- 
ble and the most useful invention that was ever 
imposed on mankind for their good. 

"Let him that would live well," said Plato, "attain 
to truth, and then, and not before, he will cease from 
sorrow." 

Seneca says, " He must be miserable who does not 
consider himself happy, although he could command 
the universe ; no man can be happy who does not 
think himself so, for it signifies not how exalted soever 
your station may be, if it appears to you bad. The 
great blessings of mankind are within us and within 
our reach, but we shut our eyes, and like people in the 
dark we fall foul upon the very thing we search for, 
without finding it." " Contentment," says Addison, 
"produces, in some measure, all those effects which 
the alchemist usually ascribes to what he calls the Phi- 
losopher's Stone ; and if it does not bring riches, it 
does the same thing by banishing the desire of them." 

A peace worth all the specious goods which this 
world has at its disposal will ever be found in a simple 



heart's-ease. 605 

and contented mind, in an affectionate heart, and in a 
pure and honorable life. Contentment is also better 
than luxury or power ; indeed it is natural wealth. 
Mary, sister of Elizabeth, often wished that she had 
been born a milkmaid instead of a queen. She would 
have been saved the torture of unrequited love, and 
the degradation of power through the hands of her 
ministers. Many martyrs would have been saved from 
burning. 

Miracles of grace are for saints as well as sinners ; 
feeble minds can be strengthened and crutches thrown 
away. We ought to grow out of the feebleness of our 
spiritual childhood. We should cry to God for grace 
that we might get up " into the hill country " of holy 
confidence, and there, like Mary, sing, " My soul doth 
magnify the Lord." Oh, that we might all attain to 
assurance, yea, to the full assurance of understanding, 
so that we should know why and wherefore we are 
thus assured, and so become rooted, grounded and 
settled in the faith, for then nothing would by any 
means remove us from the truth, or even move us in 
the truth. 

Many Christians cannot fix the precise date of their 
conversion. The new life came to them as the dawn 
comes — darkness slowly giving place to steel gray, 
and steel gray to silver, and the silver reddening into 
ruddy gold, and all so quietly and steadily that we could 
not fix the precise birth-moment of the day. 

As the ice upon the mountains, when the warm 
breath of the summer sun breathes upon it, melts and 
divides into drops, each of which reflects an image of 



606 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

the sun ; so life, in the smile of God's love, divides 
itself into separate forms, each bearing in it and reflect- 
ing an image of God's love. 



(§H^ISJHIAN (STAGES. 

I ask Thee for a thoughtful love, 

Through constant watching wise, 
A heart at leisure from itself, 

To soothe and sympathize. — Miss Waring. 

"How carefully," says St. Francis de Sales, "we 
should cherish the little graces which spring up at the 
foot of the Cross!" When asked, "What graces do 
you mean? " he replied, " Humility, patience, meekness, 
benignity, bearingone another's burdens, condescension, 
cordiality, compassion, forgiving injuries, simplicity, 
candor — all, in short, of that sort of little graces." It is 
a high Christian duty to be cheerful. Christian cheer- 
fulness is a grace, and it is also a means of grace. But, 
mind you, cheerfulness and levity are very different 
things. Perseverance is good, patience is better, 
meekness is best. The diamond, in whatever direction 
it is turned, is equally brilliant, equally attractive, nor 
requires to be placed in a certain position to exhibit 
its matchless lustre. So should the Christian shine. 
Grace tried is better than grace, and it is more than 
grace ; it is glory in its infancy. 

Bacon says: "As those wines which flow from 
the first treading of the grapes are sweeter and better 



CHRISTIAN GRACES. 607 

than those forced out by the press, which gives them 
the roughness of the husk and the stone, so are those 
doctrines best and sweetest which flow from a gentle 
crush of the Scriptures and are not wrung into con- 
troversies and commonplaces." 

The grace of prosperity is temperance ; the grace 
of adversity is fortitude. A man's true wealth is the 
good he does in the world to his fellow-men. Our 
influence is measured and expressed by example. We 
can lead others no farther than we go ourselves. 

" It is an introspection," says Canon Mosely, " on 
which all religion has been built. Man going into 
himself and seeing the struggle within him, and thence 
getting self-knowledge, and thence the knowledge of 
God." Under this influence man knows and feels 
what is right and wrong. He has the choice between 
good and evil. And because he is free to choose, he 
is responsible. When Christ implants the well of 
living water in a man's heart, it will not have merely 
a refreshing influence, but a cleansing and purifying 
effect. If there be none of the latter the absence of 
the living water may well be argued. 

Hence the imperative necessity of growing in grace, 
as grace alone will give the nourishment that life de- 
mands. And if Christ's work thus abounds in you, there 
will be no failure of its fruitage in outward every-day 
life. You can never be barren fig-trees, to which your 
Master shall come for fruit and find nothing thereon 
but leaves. I never saw a Christian who was really 
growing in grace who did not show it in his life. Such 
lives never run in stereotyped grooves. The humblest 



608 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

of them have a bent and power all their own. And 
when I see Christian men and women folding their 
hands in despair after fruitless struggling, and com- 
plaining that all the threads of life are hopelessly 
tangled, that they cannot get a clew from one of them 
to follow out to noble ends, I cannot but think that 
they have started from the wrong point, that they have 
tried to do the work of Jesus out in the world without 
first seeing to it that that work was sufficiently matured 
in their own hearts to furnish them with the inspiration 
and the clew needed to carry it on. 

There are moments in life when the power of 
reasoning concerning the morality of our actions seems 
lost — when the waves of sorrow or passion seem to 
engulf the judgment and leave us at the mercy of our 
emotions. At such times what is to become of the 
soul if it has no fixed principle — no standards of right, 
and wrong, which, in hours of calm reflection, have 
been determined, and received into the heart as truths 
never to be questioned? 

Adherence to principle is far removed from obsti- 
nacy, the latter being founded on selfishness, while the 
former is often maintained by the very crucifixion of 
self, and frequently exists in the gentlest natures. 

Christianity means honesty. It means fairness and 
squareness in dealing. It means following the golden 
rule as closely as erring man can do so. It does not 
mean the unfair taking advantage for the sake of a 
few paltry dollars. It means the doing of what a man 
believes to be right, though the heavens fall. There 
cannot be a secret Christian. Grace is like ointment 






CHRISTIAN GRACES. 609 

hid on the hand; it betrayeth itself. If you truly feel 
the sweetness of the cross of Christ, you will be con- 
strained to confess Christ before men. 

Conscience is permanent and universal. It is the 
very essence of individual character. It gives a man 
self-control — the power of resisting temptations and 
defying them. It is conscience alone which sets a man 
on his feet, frees him from the dominions of his own 
passions and propensities. It places him in relation 
to the best interests of his kind. The truest source of 
enjoyment is found in the paths of duty alone. En- 
joyment will come as the unbidden sweetener of labor, 
and crown every right work. 

At its fullest growth, conscience bids men do what- 
ever makes them happy in the highest sense, and for- 
bear doing whatever makes them unhappy. " There 
are few if any among civilized people," says Herbert 
Spencer, "who do not agree that human well-being is 
in accord with the divine will. The doctrine is taught 
by all our religious teachers ; it is assumed by every 
writer on morality ; we may, therefore, safely consider 
it an admitted truth." 

Without conscience a man can have no higher 
principle of action than pleasure. He does what he 
likes best, whether it be sensuality or even sensuous 
intellectual enjoyment. 

In order to grow in grace we must be much alone. 
It is not in society — even Christian society — that the 
soul grows most vigorous. In one single quiet hour 
of prayer it will often make more progress than in 
days of company with others. It is in the desert 

39 



6lO WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

that the dew falls freshest and the air is purest. Prac- 
tice to make God thy last thought at night when thou 
sleepest, and thy first thought in the morning when 
thou awakest ; so shall thy fancy be sanctified in the 
night, and thy understanding be rectified in the day; 
so shall thy rest be peaceful and thy labors pros- 
perous. 

Look into the life and temper of Christ described 
and illustrated in the gospel, and search whether you 
can find anything like it in your own life. Have you 
anything of His humility, meekness and benevolence 
to men? Anything of His purity and wisdom, His 
contempt of the world, His patience, His fortitude, His 
zeal ? It is not the man who gives his money that is 
the true benefactor of his kind, but the man who gives 
himself. The man who gives his money is advertised ; 
the man who gives his time, strength and soul is be- 
loved. The one may be remembered, while the other 
may be forgotten, though the good influence he has 
sown will never die. 

Mackenzie says: "I have observed one ingredient 
somewhat necessary in a man's composition towards 
happiness, which people of feeling would do well to 
acquire — a certain respect for the follies of mankind ; 
for there are so many fools whom the world entitles to 
regard, whom accident has placed in heights of which 
they are unworthy, that he who cannot restrain his 
contempt or indignation at the sight will be too often 
quarreling with the disposal of things to relish that 
share which is allotted to himself." 

It is only the incorrigible egotist or the self-satisfied 



CHRISTIAN GRACES. 6l I 

Pharisee who does not lament his lack of knowledge 
and his immaturity in grace. There is an Eastern 
story of a sultan who overslept himself, so as not to 
awaken at the hour of prayer. So the devil came and 
waked him and told him to get up and pray. "Who 
are you? " said the sultan. "Oh, no matter," replied 
the other. "My act is good, is it not? No matter who 
does the good action so long as it is good." " Yes," 
replied the sultan, " but I think you are Satan. I know 
your face ; you have some bad motive." " But," says 
the other, " I am not so bad as I am painted. You see 
I have left off my horns and tail. I am a pretty good 
fellow after all. I was an angel once and I still keep 
some of my original goodness." " That's all very 
well," replied the sagacious and prudent caliph, "but 
you are the tempter ; that's your business ; and I wish 
to know why you want me to get up and pray." 
"Well," said the devil, with a flirt of impatience, "if 
you must know, I will tell you. If you had slept and 
forgotten your prayers, you would have been sorry for 
it afterwards, and penitent ; but if you go on as now 
and do not neglect a single prayer for ten years, you 
will be so satisfied with yourself that it will be worse 
for you than if you had missed one sometimes and 
repented of it. God loves your fault mixed with peni- 
tence more than your virtue seasoned with pride." 

A Christian is always on the perch or on the wing ; 
he is always reposing in God or in flight after him, and 
the latter is as good an evidence of religion as the 
former ; for delight is not only a part of complacency 
and affection, but also fear, complaint, desire — fear of 



6l2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

losing the object ; complaint of our enjoying so little of 
it ; desire to attain and feel more. 

Active and sympathetic contact with man in the 
transactions of daily life is a better preparation for 
healthy, robust piety than any amount of meditation 
and seclusion. What Swedenborg said about vowing 
poverty and retiring from the world in order to live 
more to heaven, seems reasonable and true. " The life 
that leads to heaven," he said, " is not a life of retire- 
ment from the world, but of action in the world. A life 
of charity, which consists in acting sincerely and justly 
in every enjoyment and work, in obedience to the 
Divine law, is not difficult ; but a life of piety alone is 
difficult, and it leads away from heaven as much as it 
is commonly believed to lead to it." 

Once it was a wide-spread notion that growth in 
piety required entire withdrawal from the pressure 
and concerns of the world. This was a serious mis- 
take. In our busy, stirring times, we are greatly 
tempted to err in the opposite direction. While striv- 
ing to let our light shine before men, we are in danger 
of forgetting to feed our lamp with holy oil. With our 
many opportunities for social worship, we may let that 
which is public answer all things, to the exclusion of 
the private services of religion. Amidst our abundant 
facilities for instruction in righteousness in our mul- 
tiplied assemblies, we may overlook quiet, devotional 
study ; we may be tempted to let our public exercises 
in examining the word pass for private meditation, 
which is a precious means of digesting and assimilat- 
ing holy truth. 



CHRISTIAN GRACES. 613 

While we may be faithful not to forget the assem- 
bling of ourselves together, we may fail to regard the 
importance of holding communion with the Lord in 
secret. While uniting our influence and contributions 
in a great fund for extensive good, we are in danger 
of underrating the value and effectiveness of indivi- 
dual acts of Christian affability and charity ; as though 
while we contemplated with awe the force of the aval- 
anche, we should fail to think of the individual snow- 
flakes that compose the majestic mass. Piety has no 
less a private life than a public sphere. At the same 
time that we confess the communion of saints, there is 
no less certainly an individual communion with God. 
Let us be careful that we become not partial or one- 
sided in our religious views and practices. If our 
light is not to be hidden under a bushel, neither must 
we neglect the private carefulness that keeps the 
lamp well-trimmed and burning. 

The Christian hero is not incited by any such deeds 
of daring as the soldier hero. The arena on which he 
acts is not that of aggression or strife, but of suf- 
fering and self-sacrifice. No stars glitter on his breast, 
no banners wave over him. And when he falls, as he 
often does, in the performance of his duty, he receives 
no nation's laurels, no pompous mournings, but only 
the silent dropping of tears over his grave. 

Man is not made for fame or glory or success; 
but for something higher and greater than the world 
can give. " God hath given to man," says Jeremy 
Taylor, " a short time here upon earth, and yet upon 
this short time eternity depends. We must remember 



614 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

that we have many enemies to conquer, many evils to 
prevent, much danger to run through, many difficulties 
to be mastered, many necessities to be served, and 
much good to do." 

Here is a fine specimen of honesty and truthful- 
ness on the part of a poor German peasant. Bernardin 
de Saint Pierre has told the story in his " Etudes de la 
Nature." He was serving as an engineer under the 
Count de Saint Germain during his campaign in Hesse, 
in 1760. For the first time he became familiar with 
the horrors of war. Day by day he passed through 
sacked villages and devastated fields and farm-yards. 
Men, women and children were flying from their cot- 
tages in tears. Armed men were everywhere destroy- 
ing the fruits of their labor, regarding it as part of 
their glory. But in the midst of so many acts of 
cruelty, Saint Pierre was consoled by a sublime trait 
of character displayed by a poor man whose cottage 
and farm lay in the way of the advancing army. 

A captain of dragoons was ordered out with his 
troop to forage for provisions. They reached a poor 
cabin and knocked at the door An old man with a 
white beard appeared. " Take me to a field," said the 
officer, "where I can obtain forage for my troops." 
" Immediately, sir," replied the old man. He put him- 
self at their head, and ascended the valley. After 
about half an hour's march a fine, field of barley ap- 
peared. " This will do admirably," said the officer. 
" No," said the old man ; wait a little, and all will be 
right." They went on again, until they reached an- 
other field of barley. The troops dismounted, mowed 



CHRISTIAN GRACES. 615 

down the grain, and trussing it up in bundles, put 
them on their horses. " Friend," said the officer, 
" how is it that you have brought us so far? The first 
field of barley that we saw was quite as good as this." 
"That is quite true," said the peasant, "but it was not 
mine ! " 

In olden times virtue and valor were synonymous. 
Valor, the old Roman valor, was worth, value. It was 
strength, force, available for noble purposes. He who 
best serves his fellow-creatures, who elevates them, 
who saves them, is the most valiant. 

There is also an inward valor — of conscience, of 
honesty, of self-denial, of self-sacrifice, of daring to do 
the right in the face of the world's contumely. Its 
chief characteristic is great-heartedness. Endurance 
and energy are the dual soul of worth, the true valor. 

Humility is of all graces the chief when it does not 
know itself to be a grace. Kind looks, kind words, 
kind acts and warm handshakes — these are primary 
means of grace when men are in trouble, and fighting 
their unseen battles. They build up both the giver 
and the receiver. Art thou, then, desirous of possess- 
ing this chiefest of all graces ? Dost thou tremble, 
fearing that the pride of thy life will destroy its joyous 
work? 

Surely humility is apparent enough. Thou takest 
a right view of thyself, O man of desires ! A lowly 
esteem hast thou of thyself, and this is well. I would 
to God that some who are full of brags and boasts 
about their holiness could only be as safe as thou art 
with thy desires and groans, for there is in thee that 



6l6 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

broken and contrite heart which the Lord will not 
despise. God hath given thee this jewel among the 
rest — a meek and lowly spirit. Ay, and there is faith 
in thee, for no man heartily desires to believe unless 
he doth in some measure already believe. There is a 
measure of believing in every true desire after be- 
lieving. 

If thou sayest, " I would trust Christ," why, soul, 
thou trusteth him already in some degree, since thou 
dost believe that He is the kind of person whom it 
would be right to trust. Thy desire to cast thyself 
wholly upon Christ hath in it the beginnings of saving 
faith. ■ Thou hast the grain of mustard-seed within 
thee which will grow into a great tree. I can tell the 
mustard by its taste; the strength of thy desire, its 
pungency and heat, betray the genuine seed. And 
thou hast love, too; I am sure of it. Did ever a man 
desire to love that which he did not love already ? Thou 
hast already some affection towards the Lord Jesus, 
some drawings of thy heart Christwards, or else thou 
wouldst not sigh and cry to be more filled with it. He 
who loves most is the very man who most passionately 
desires to love more. Love and desire keep pace in 
Christians, so that the more love the more desire to 
love ; and so I gather that this desire of thine to love 
Jesus is a sure evidence that thou dost love Him 
already. 

Thy desire is the smoke which proves that there is 
fire in thy soul. A living flame lingers yet among the 
embers, and with a little fanning it will reveal itself. 
Thy desire to serve God is obedience, thy desire to 



CHRISTIAN GRACES. 6lJ 

pray is prayer, thy desire to praise is praise. I am 
sure, also, that thou hast some hope ; for a man does 
not continue to groan out before his God, and to make 
his desire known, unless he has some hope that his 
desire will be satisfied, and that his grief will be 
assuaged. Living desires are better than dead duties, 
as a living dog is better than a dead lion. The most 
regular outward performance of pious duties may be 
the revolution of heartless machinery; but desires 
mean life, and life is needful if we would please the 
living God. 

And as holy desires after God keep company with 
humility and faith and love and hope, I am persuaded 
they are of like character, and are gracious themselves. 
I know you have some hope, and therefore if you have 
no hope anywhere else I am persuaded that you have 
hope in God. That thought of God which makes 
you cry, "Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise 
him," has the seeds of hope, and the beginning of 
comfort, with it. I might go over many of the graces, 
but these will suffice. 

We believe that none can bring a clean thing out 
of an unclean, neither can thorns bring forth figs. If 
there is a desiring and a groaning of the heart after 
God in your bosom, depend upon it human nature 
never originated it. Can sin desire holiness, or death 
pant for life? Holy desires are plants which are by 
no means native to the soil of human nature: their 
seed comes from a far country. Did the devil 
work these holy desires, think you ? Hearken, brother,, 
does the devil make you thirst after God? Does he 



6l8 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

make you sigh and cry after the light of your Father's 
countenance? .Does he make you pray to be delivered 
from temptation? Does he make you sigh to be con- 
formed to the image of Christ ? Then the devil has 
very greatly altered since I met him last, and since he 
was described in holy writ, or seen in the conflicts of 
good men. Who, then, has kindled these heavenly 
flames of desire? I earnestly avow my belief that 
every pure desire is as much the work of God as the 
grace which it desires. He who sincerely longs to be 
right with God has already somewhat of a work of 
divine grace within his soul creating those aspirations. 
Now as God. can say of all that he creates, "It is 
very good," I come to the conclusion that these groan- 
ing desires after God are very good. They are not 
great, nor strong, but they are gracious. There is 
water in a drop as well as in the sea, there is life in a 
gnat as well as in an elephant, there is light in a beam 
as well as in the sun, and so is there grace in a desire 
as truly as in complete sanctifkation. 



+-S- 



<9HE LiAW OF LfOYE, 



Love is the master of all arts, 
And puts it into human hearts 
The strangest things to say and do. — H. IV. Longfellow. 



Love smooths the path of duty, and wings the feet 
to travel it ; it is the bow which impels the arrow of 
obedience ; it is the mainspring moving the wheels of 
duty; it is the strong arm tugging the oar of diligence. 






THE LAW OF LOVE. 619 

Love is the marrow of the bones of fidelity, the blood 
in the veins of piety, the sinews of spiritual strength; 
yea, the life of sincere devotion. He that hath love 
can no more be motionless than the aspen in the gale, 
the sere leaf in the hurricane, or the spray in the tem- 
pest. As' well may hearts cease to beat as love to 
labor. Love is instinct with activity, it cannot be idle ; 
it is full of energy, it cannot content itself with littles ; 
it is the well-spring of heroism, and great deeds are 
the gushings of its fountain; it is a giant; it heapeth 
mountains upon mountains and thinketh the pile but 
little ; it is a mighty mystery, for it changes bitter into 
sweet ; it calls death life, and life death ; and it makes 
pain less painful than enjoyment. 

"Love rejoiceth not in iniquity; " that is love does 
not make us glad to hear about the faults and failures 
of others ; but it does make us happy when others are 
prospered and living true lives. There is no fear in 
love, for perfect love casteth out fear. A loving act 
does more good often than a blazing exhortation. 
What the race needs is not more good talkers but 
more good Samaritans. 

Heart-power is of all others the most beneficent. 
Physical energy subdues matter, but the soul triumphs 
by the force of its affections over the mightiest of 
obstacles. The heart of Christ is the seat and center 
of His supremacy over so many millions of our race. 
He is not ranked as a genius, nor as an orator. He 
cultivated no human learning. He disdained the 
boasted charms of philosophy. Yet His speech dis- 
tilled as the dew, and His words have an inexhaustible 



620 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

power which neither dullness, nor ignorance, nor 
depravity, nor unbelief can resist. 

If we seek to find the reason of their power, we 
shall find it in that love which vitalizes all the truth 
they express. Here, then, lies the secret of Christian 
usefulness. Ministers of the gospel, Sunday school 
teachers, parents, and all who desire to impart the 
gospel, must let it run through the fervid affections of 
the heart. Cold, intellectual instruction may have its 
place in the schools, and in those discussions which 
relate to general public affairs. But in the kingdom 
of heaven the heart is master. They who put most of 
heart into their work have most success and reap the 
largest satisfactions. This is a truth too often for- 
gotten in these days, when so much stress is laid on 
methods. 

We must feed the lambs. We must " lift up the 
hands that hang down, and confirm the feeble knees.' * 
The voice of God is heard in our heart saying, " Com- 
fort ye, comfort ye, my people," which voice we dare 
not disregard; indeed, the sympathies aroused within 
us by a similar experience prompt us to be forward in 
compassionating the weak and the tried. Therefore, 
at this time I would seek out the weary and wounded 
and feeble ; not with a view of trying to multiply their 
number, but with the hope of diminishing their number 
by cheering them till they grow out of their low con- 
dition. 

That God is indeed a father to us was one of those 
things kept secret since the world began until Jesus 
came and by the infinitive love of His life made the in- 



THE LAW OF LOVE. 62 1 

finitive love of God credible. Miss not the grandeur 
of this revelation. Come trusting — not afraid to ask. 
The children are not expected to lay up for their Great 
Father ; but the Father lays up for the children. What- 
ever we have been, it is our duty to reckon on deepest 
interest and richest love filling God's heart towards us. 

If you have desires which you wish the Lord to 
know of they must be right; you would not dare to 
bring them before God if they were not good desires. 
When you are in God's house and with God's people, 
or reading God's Word, or when you are drawing 
near to God in contemplation, then these desires are 
strongest ; now, if they were bad desires they would 
not flourish in the best of atmospheres, they would not 
be watered and nourished by the best of influences, for 
such influences would tend to kill ill weeds of strange 
desire. So, then, there is some good thing in thee 
towards the Lord God of Israel after all : thou wouldst 
not have these heavings of soul, these strivings of 
heart, these pantings, these hungerings and thirstings, 
if it were not that there is somewhat in thee of the 
Spirit's working. God has dealt graciously with thee 
in giving thee these good desires. Sparks of ever- 
lasting life are alive within thy spirit so long as thou 
hast spiritual hunger and thirst. Thy desire must be 
<l good thing, or thou wouldst not dare to make it 
known to God ; and seeing that it is a good thing 
take care thou nurture it well, and cause it to grow by 
expressing it with thy whole heart before God. 

It is said that the blood of the goat will dissolve 
diamonds that resist the hammer and the anvil. So 



62 2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

Christ's precious blood melts the most hardened heart 
When refinement and polish have sometimes crys- 
tallized a soul into worldliness, so that the law with its 
great thumps has failed to subdue it, the tender in- 
fluences of Christ's love in his death has brought the 
soul to complete submission to His will. One glance 
of God, a touch of his love, will free and enlarge the 
heart, so that it can deny all, and part with all, and 
make an entire renouncing of all to follow him. 

Could we with ink the ocean fill, 
And were the skies of parchment made, 

Were every blade of grass a quill, 
And every man a scribe by trade; 

To write the love of God above, 
Would drain the ocean dry, 

Nor could the scroll contain the whole, 
Though stretched from sky to sky. 

If we only half believe what our Saviour has told 
us of the love of God, of the joy he has over the re- 
turning wanderer, we never could stay away from him 
as we do. 

O reader, if you are indifferent to him, remember, 
he is not indifferent to you ! If you are not delighted 
yourself in him, you are suffering loss. The Lord 
takes pleasure in his people. We read in the thirty- 
seventh Psalnv at the twenty-third verse : " The steps 
of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he de- 
lighteth in his way." 

" Do your gods love you ?" asked a missionary of 
some Indians. 

:< The gods never think of loving," was the cheer- 
less answer. 

The missionary repeated the sixteenth verse of the 
third chapter of St. John's Gospel : " For God so loved 



THE LAW OF LOVE. 623 

the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that 
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have 
everlasting life." 

" Read it again," asked the arrested pagan. " That 
is large light ; read it again." 

A third time the blessed words were repeated, 
and with this emphatic response : 

"That is true; I feel it." 

On one occasion a missionary was dictating to a 
native amanuensis the translation of the third chapter 
of the first epistle of St. John ; and when they reached 
the passage, " Now are we the sons of God," the con- 
verted heathen burst into tears, and exclaimed, " It is 
too much, it is too much ; let me put it, ' Now we are 
permitted to kiss his feet.' " 

The force of love is always greater than that of 
sternness. Antagonism arouses antagonism. What 
the hammer will not weld the magnet will draw to- 
gether. And thus the mightiest influence with which 
to bind men to Christ's cross is love. Nothing quick- 
ens the perceptions like genuine love. From the 
humblest professional attachment to the most chivalric 
devotion, what keenness of observation is born under 
the influence of that feeling which drives away the 
obscuring clouds of selfishness, as the sun consumes 
the vapor of the morning. 

Man is dear to man ; the poorest poor 

Long for some moments in a weary life, 

When they can know and feel that they have been 

Themselves the fathers and the dealers-out 

Of some small blessings ; have been kind to such 

As needed kindness, for the single cause, 

That we have all of us one human heart. 



624 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

It is wonderful how men change to a changed 
heart! Being ennobled ourselves we see noble things, 
and loving, find out love. Little touches of courage, 
of goodness, of love in men, which formerly, looking 
for perfection, we passed by, now attract us like flow- 
ers beside a dusty highway. We take them as keys 
to the character, and door after door flies open to us. 

It is related of St. John that when very old — so old 
that he could not walk and could scarcely speak — he 
was carried in the arms of his friends into an assembly 
of Christian children. He lifted himself up and said, 
" Little children, love one another." And again he 
said, " Love one another." When asked, " Have you 
nothing else to tell us?" he replied, "I say this again 
and again, because, if you do this, nothing more is 
needed." The same truth applies universally. Sym- 
pathy is founded on love. It is but another word for 
disinterestedness and affection. We assume another's 
state of mind ; we go out of ourself and inhabit an- 
other's personality. We sympathize with him, we help 
him, we relieve him. There can be no love without 
sympathy; there can be no friendship without sympa- 
thy. Like mercy, sympathy and benevolence are twice 
blessed, blessing both giver ahd receiver. While they 
bring forth an abundant fruit of happiness in the heart 
of the giver, they grow up into kindness and benevo- 
lence in the heart of the receiver. 

How strange it seems, that the passion of love 
should be the supreme mover of the world ; that it is 
this which has dictated the greatest sacrifices, and 
influenced all societies and all times ; that to this the 



THE LAW OF LOVE. 625 

loftiest and loveliest genius has ever consecrated its 
devotion ; that but for love there were no civilization, 
no music, no poetry, no beauty, no life beyond the 
brute's ! 

Lord Bacon writes : " Goodness answers to the 
theological virtue of love, and admits no excess but 
error ; the desire of power in excess caused the angels 
to fall ; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man 
to fall; but in charity there is no excess — neither can 
angel or man come into danger by it. True benevo- 
lence is to love all men. Recompense injury with 
justice, and kindness with kindness. The desire to be 
beloved is ever restless and unsatisfied, but the love 
that flows out upon others is a perpetual well-spring 
from on high. 

A man may be a miser of his wealth; he may tie 
up his talent in a napkin ; he may hug himself in his 
reputation; but he is always generous in his love. 
Love cannot stay at home; a man cannot keep it to 
himself. Like light, it is constantly traveling. A man 
must spend it, must give it away. 

Elijah's mantle was a very influential garment, 
and so was an old coat of David Livingstone's. In a 
recent paper read before the British Geographical 
Society, Rev. Chauncey Maples, of the University Mis- 
sion in Eastern Africa, tells how at Matoba, he met a 
native who had on his shoulders an old coat, mouldy 
and partially eaten away, but evidently of English make 
and material. On asking where the coat came from, 
he was told that it was given him by "a white man 
who treated black men as his brothers, whose words 

40 



626 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

were always gentle and whose manners were always 
kind, and whom, as a leader, it was a privilege to fol- 
low, and who knew the way to the hearts of all 
men." It proved to be Dr. Livingstone's coat, and 
this was the rude African's description of the great 
missionary explorer. He had kept the coat for ten 
years in memory of the giver. The incident reveals 
not only the character of Livingstone, but also that of 
the African. These savages have hearts, and men 
should find the way to them. 

"Love," says Emerson, "would put a new face on 
this weary old world, in which we dwell as pagans and 
enemies too long ; and it would warm the heart to see 
how fast the vain diplomacy of statesmen, the impo- 
tence of armies and navies and lines of defense,, 
would be superseded by this unarmed child. Love 
will creep where it cannot go ; will accomplish that, by 
imperceptible methods — being its own fulcrum, lever 
and power — which force could never achieve. 

" Have you not seen in the woods, in a late autumn 
morning, a poor fungus or mushroom, a plant without 
any solidity, nay, that seemed nothing but a soft mush 
or jelly, by its constant, bold, and inconceivably gentle 
pushing, manage to break its way up through the 
frosty ground, and actually to lift a hard crust on its 
head? This is the symbol of the power of kindness. 
The virtue of this principle in human society, in appli- 
cation to great interests, is obsolete and forgotten. 
Once or twice in history it has been tried, in illustrious 
instances, with signal success. This great, overgrown,, 
dead Christendom of ours still keeps alive, at least, 



THE LAW OF LOVE. 627 

the name of a lover of mankind. But one day all men 
will be lovers and every calamity will be dissolved in 
the universal sunshine/' Christ's love is the Church's 
fire. Thither bring- thy heart when it is cold, frozen, 
and dead. Meditate on His love, and pray until you 
can say: "He loved me, and gave himself for me." 

Though we may look to our understanding for 
amusement, it is to the affections only that we must 
trust for happiness. This implies a spirit of self-sac- 
rifice, and our virtues, like our children, are endeared 
to us for what we suffer for them. " The secret of my 
mother's influence," says Mrs. Fletcher in her "Auto- 
biography," "was well expressed by her early friend, 
Dr. Kelvington of Ripon, and it may be called the key- 
note of her life. He says, in one of his letters to her 
at the age of seventeen, 'I have never known any one 
so tenderly and truly and universally beloved as yoo 
are, and I believe it arises from your capacity of loving I" 

The railings upon a bridge do not hinder you from 
making progress in every proper manner, and as 
rapidly as possible. They only hinder you from fall- 
ing off at either side. No one in his senses ever 
objects to them. Like them are the restraints of the 
Christian life. These are no hindrances to your worthy 
and ennobling desires. They only check you when., 
either thoughtlessly or iri temporary consent to temp- 
tation, you are about to endanger your spiritual safety. 
Hence it is that the best Christians seem unvexed by 
them, and sometimes almost unconscious of them. 
Such believers are pressing directly on so earnestly as 
not to feel so often or so strongly as others, the temp- 



628 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

tation to wander aside. Therefore, they enjoy religion 
far more than do their less earnest fellow-Christians. 
When you feel noticeably the restraints of the gospel 
upon you, ask yourself if you are not trying to get 
out of the right way, instead of advancing in it. If 
you will cherish the psalmist's spirit, you will be able 
to appropriate his words : " I will walk at liberty, for 
I seek thy precepts." 

It is not for ourselves alone that we work and 
strive. It is for others as well as for ourselves. There 
are moral laws, family ties, domestic affections, home 
government and guidance, which stand on a higher 
level and are based on nobler considerations than 
selfish pleasures or money payment. We must be- 
ware how we allow our views to center in ourselves. 
4i No one," said Epictetus, " who is a .lover of riches, 
or a lover of pleasure, or a lover of glory, can at the 
same time be a lover of men." " To be a lover of 
men," said St. Anthony, " is, in • fact, to live." Thus 
love is the universal principle of good. It is glorified 
in human intelligence. It is the only remedy for the 
woes of the human race. It is sweet in action — in 
learning, in philosophy, in manners, in legislation, in 
government. 

The love of excellence is inseparable from a spirit 
of uncompromising detestation for all that is base and 
criminal. Froissart describes Gaston de Foix as " one 
who was in everything so perfect that he cannot be 
praised too much ; he loved that which ought to be 
beloved, and hated that which ought to be hated." 
St. Augustine says nearly the same thing : " Virtue is 



THE LAW OF LOVE. 629 

nothing but well-directed love, inducing us to love 
what we ought to love, and to hate what is worthy of 
hatred." 

The old hermits had a great love for animals. They 
were their only companions. The birds used to flutter 
about them, and even the wild animals took shelter 
with them. They seemed to feel that no harm would 
be done to them. Even birds know and feel their 
danger when a man appears among them with a gun. 
Crows rise from picking up the grubs along the plow- 
man's furrow and immediately disappear, though the 
crows by feeding themselves were furthering the next 
year's harvest. 

St. Francis had a notion that all living things were 
his brothers and sisters, and he carried his idea beyond 
the confines of poetry into literal fact. He even 
preached to the birds. He used to speak to all cre- 
ated things as if they had intelligence, and he loved to 
recognize in their various properties some trace of the 
divine perfection. " If your heart be right," said an- 
other ancient sage, " then every creature is a mirror of 
life and a book of holy doctrine." 

Probably there is no influence so powerful as sym- 
pathy in awakening the affections of the human heart. 
There are few, even of the most rugged natures, whom 
it does not influence. It constrains much more than 
force can do. A kind word or a kind look will act 
upon those upon whom coercion has been tried in vain. 
While sympathy invites to love and obedience, harsh- 
ness provokes aversion and resistance. The poet is 



63O WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

right who says that " power itself hath not one-half 
the might of gentleness." 

Sympathy, when allowed to take a wider range, 
assumes the larger form of public philanthropy. It 
Influences man in the endeavor to elevate his fellow- 
creatures from a state of poverty and distress, to im- 
prove the condition of the masses of the people, to 
diffuse the results of civilization far and wide among 
mankind, and to unite in the bonds of peace and 
brotherhood the parted families of the human race. 
And it is every man's duty, whose lot has been favored 
in comparison with others, who enjoys advantages of 
wealth or knowledge or social influence, of which 
others are deprived, to devote at least a certain portion 
of his time and money to the promotion of the general 
well-being. 



©he Sabbath. 

Hail, holy day ! sweet day of rest 

Both blessed and sanctified, 
In which the poor and the oppressed 

Are free and satisfied. 

The poor, who toil, from day to day, 

Beneath a burning sun, 
With gratitude and joy will say, 
" Our six days' work is done." 

They see the sabbath-day appear, 

To heaven their prayers arise ; 
They hope to end their labors here, 

And rest above the skies. 

The Sabbath is the green oasis, the little grassy 
meadow in the wilderness, when, after the week-days' 
journey, the pilgrim halts for refreshment and repose ; 



THE SABBATH. 63 I 

where he rests beneath the shade of the lofty palm- 
trees, beside the well-spring-, and dips his vessel in the 
waters of the calm, clear stream, and recovers his 
strength to go forth again upon his pilgrimage in the 
desert with renewed vigor and cheerfulness. 

Bunyan says, " Make the Lord's day the market 
for thy soul; let the whole day be spent in prayer, 
repetitions, or meditations. Lay aside the affairs of 
the other parts of the week ; let the sermon thou hast 
heard be converted into prayer. Shall God allow thee 
six days, and wilt not thou afford him one?" 

The importance of the religious observance of the 
Sabbath is seldom sufficiently estimated. The viola- 
tion of this duty by the young is one of the most 
decided marks of incipient moral degeneracy. Reli- 
gious restraint is fast losing its hold upon that young 
man, who having been educated in the fear of God, 
begins to spend the Sabbath in idleness, or in amuse- 
ment. And so also of communities. The desecration 
of the Sabbath is one of those evident indications of 
that criminal recklessness, that insane love of pleasure, 
and that subjection to the government of appetite and 
passion, which forebodes that the " beginning of the 
end " of social happiness, and of true national pros- 
perity, has arrived. 

There is one weapon which the enemy has em- 
ployed to destroy Christianity and drive it from the 
world, which has never been employed but with signal 
success. It is the attempt to corrupt the Christian 
Sabbath, to make it a day of festivity, to cause 
Christians to feel that its sacred and rigid obligation 



632 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

has ceased, to induce them on that day to mingle in 
the scenes of pleasure or the exciting plans of ambi- 
tion, to make them feel that they may pursue their 
journey by land or water, by the steamboat and the 
railway, regardless of the command of God ; and this 
has done, and will continue to do what no argument, 
no sophistry, no imperial power has been able to 
accomplish. 

The " Book of Sports " did more to destroy Chris- 
tianity than all the ten persecutions of the Roman Em- 
perors ; and the views of the Second Charles and his 
Court about |Jie Lord's day tended more to drive re- 
ligion from the British nation than all the fires that 
were enkindled by Mary. Paris has no Sabbath, and 
that fact has done more to banish Christianity than all 
the writings of Voltaire ; and Vienna has no Sabbath, 
and that fact does more to annihilate religion there 
than ever the skepticism of Frederick. Turn the Sab- 
bath into a day of sport and pastimes, of military 
reviews, and of pantomimes and theatrical exhibitions, 
and not an infidel would care a farthing about the 
tomes of Volney or Voltaire, about the skepticism of 
Hume, the sneers of Gibbon or the scurrility of Paine. 

A Sabbath-keeping people will become a thought- 
ful people, and such thoughtfulness is manliness. All 
men, and especially the busy millions in an advanced civi- 
lization like our own, need for the mind's sake not less 
than for the sake of wearied nerves and muscles, the 
seventh day intermission of their ordinary work. A 
true Sabbath is something far more restful than a day 
of noisy jollity. In its calm air the mind rests by 



THE SABBATH. 633 

thought, not thoughtlessness ; by quiet musing, by con- 
scious or unconscious retrospection ; perhaps by con- 
sideration of what might have been, perhaps by 
thinking what may yet be, perhaps by aspiration and 
resolve towards something in the future that shall be bet- 
ter than what has been in the past. The home in which 
Sunday is a day of rest and home enjoyments is hal- 
lowed by the Sabbaths which it hallows. In the Sabbath- 
keeping village life is less frivolous and at the same 
time industry is more productive for the weekly rest. 
A Sabbath-keeping nation is greater in peace and in 
war for the character which its tranquil and thoughtful 
Sabbaths have impressed upon it. 

Sunday is the golden clasp that binds together the 
volume of the week. I never knew a man to escape 
failures either in mind or body who worked seven days 
in a week. If you have no love for the Sabbath, 
observe it out of respect to your parents, public 
opinion, and to God. In our country a man's position 
for respectability is questionable, to say the least, who 
manifests a disregard for religion and the Sabbath. 

"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." 
Don't forget it. Don't idle it away in silly nothings. 
Don't frolic. Don't sleep it off. Don't visit unless 
you go to see the sick or distressed. Don't do 
ordinary work. Don't hunt. Don't read novels and 
light trash. Don't sit around drug stores and hotels. 
Don't commence a journey on Sunday. Don't steal 
God's time to do your work or have your pleasure. 
" Remember the day and keep it holy." I have great 



634 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

hopes of a boy who has a tender conscience in refer- 
ence to the Sabbath. "Keep it holy." 

Mr. Talmage says, " I had a friend in Syracuse who 
lived to be one hundred years of age. He said to me 
in his ninety-ninth year, ' I went across the mountains 
in the early history of this country. Sabbath morning 
came. We were beyond the reach of civilization. My 
comrades were all going out for an excursion. 
I said, ' No, I won't go, it is Sunday.' Why, they 
laughed. They said, ' why, we haven't any Sunday 
here.' 'Oh! yes,' I said, 'you have. I brought it 
with me over the mountains.' " 

I wish all tired people did but know the infinite 
rest there is in fencing off the six days from the 
seventh. In anchoring the business ships of your 
daily life as the Saturday draws to its close, leaving 
them to ride peacefully upon the flow or the ebb, until 
Monday morning comes again. Oh, the delight, the 
lull of the feeling : " No need to settle this question, 
no need to think of this piece of work for a whole, 
long, sweet, thirty-six hours." 

Why do you take Sunday papers, to keep your 
nerves astir with business on the Lord's own day of 
rest ? Why do you add up and consult and consider 
in the pauses of the sermon, or make opportunity for 
a business whisper in the porch, and on the way home? 
Why do you let the perplexities of servants, of means, 
of plans, ruffle your, spirits on the one great day of 
freedom? Do you not know that even a debtor may 
walk abroad on Sunday with no fear of a prison, and 
house-doors may stand open and no sheriff can enter ? 



THE SABBATH. 635 

Shall it be worse with your mind than with your 
body? 

Sleep, sleep to-day, tormenting cares, 
Of earth and folly born. 

It is the high court of the Prince of Peace. 

One of the greatest financiers of the nation de- 
clared that he owed his life to the relief from business 
which the Sabbath gave him, and multitudes have made 
similar declarations. 

It was commonly if not universally, true that 
travelers on the overland route to California, that 
allowed themselves and their teams to rest, were first at 
the end of their journey. This at the time excited a very 
considerable amount of surprise and comment. Illus- 
trations of the kind might be multiplied indefinitely. 

Seven young men in a town of Massachusetts 
started in the same business nearly at the same time. 
Six of them had some property or assistance from 
their friends, and followed their business seven days in 
the week. The other had less property than either of 
the six. He had less assistance from others, and 
worked in his business only six days in a week. He 
is now the only man who has property, and has not 
failed in his business. 

A distinguished merchant in a city said, "It is about 
thirty years since I came to this city, and every man 
through this whole range who came down to his store, 
or suffered his counting room to be opened on the 
Sabbath, has lost his property. There is no need of 
breaking the Sabbath, and no benefit from it. We 
have not had a vessel leave the harbor on the Sabbath 



636 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

for more than twenty years. It is altogether better to 
get them off on a week day than on the Sabbath." It 
is better, even for this world. And so with all kinds 
of secular business. Men may seem to gain for a 
time by the profanation of the Sabbath, but it does not 
end well. Their disappointment, even here, often 
comes suddenly. 

The company of persons who went out on the 
Sabbath in a pleasure boat expected to be gainers; 
but the tumult in their conscience before the tumult 
without, told them that all was not right ; and when 
the boat upset, and the hapless victims sank to rise no 
more, new testimony was added to that of thousands, 
that disobedience to God is not the way to gain even 
for this world. 

Two ministers undertook to correct an indolent 
young man for sabbath-breaking. The first spoke 
solemnly on the command, "Remember the Sabbath- 
day to keep it holy." The other said, " You have for- 
gotten one-half of the commandment ? ' six days shall 
thou labor, and do all thy work,' for if a man does not 
labor six days of the week, he is not likely to rest 
properly on the seventh." 

A Syrian convert to Christianity was ordered by 
his employer to work on Sunday, but he declined. 
" But," said the master, " does not the Master say that 
if a man has an ox or an ass that falls into a pit on the 
Sabbath-day, he may pull him out? " " Yes," answered 
Hayop, " but if the ass has a habit of falling into the 
same pit every Sabbath-day, then the man should 
either fill up the pit or sell that ass." 



THE LIBERAL SOUL. 637 



©he Ixibbral Soul. 

The liberal soul shall be made fat ; and he that watereth shall be watered 
also himself. 

Carry the radiance of your soul in your face; let 
the world have the benefit of it. Let your cheerful- 
ness be left for good, wherever you are, and let your 
smiles be scattered like sunbeams — " on the just as 
well as on the unjust." Such a disposition will yield 
you a rich reward, for its happy effects will come home 
to you, and brighten your moments of thought. Smiles 
are the higher and better responses of nature to the 
emotion of the soul. Let the children have the benefit 
of them, these little ones who need the sunshine of 
the heart to educate them, and would find a level for 
their buoyant nature in the cheerful, loving faces of 
those who lead them. Let them not be kept from the 
middle-aged, who need the encouragement they bring. 
Give your smiles also to the aged. They come to 
them like the quiet rain of summer, making fresh and 
verdant the long, weary path of life. Be gentle and 
indulgent to all ; love the true, the beautiful, the just, 
the holy. 

What help in a comrade's bugle blast 

When the peril of Alpine heights is past? 

What need the spurring paean roll 

When the runner is safe beyond the goal ? 

What worth is Eulogy's blandest breath 

When whispered in ears that are hushed in death ? 

Nay ! nay ! if thou hast a word of cheer, 

Speak it while I am alive to hear. Margaret J. Preston. 

If you stand upon the mountain, you may see the 
:sun shining long after it is dark in the valley. Try to 



638 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

live up high ! Escape, if you can, the malarious damps 
of the lowlands. Make an upward path for your feet. 
Though your spirit may be destined to live isolated, 
you cannot be alone, for God is there. Your best 
strivings of soul are there. Your standard ground 
should be there. Live upward ! The cedar is always 
developing its branches towards the top, while the 
lower ones are dropping away. Let your soul-life be 
so. Upward ! Upward ! 

A child of God had rather ten thousand times suffer 
for Christ than that Christ should suffer for him. 
"There are people that live behind the hill," is an old 
German proverb, which means that there are other 
folks in the world besides yourself, although you 
may not see them. As plants without sunlight grow 
pale and feeble, so our lives, if our heart's window 
towards Heaven is closed and the sun of righteous- 
ness shut out, will become dwarfed and useless. 
Charles Lamb said, the greatest pleasure known is to 
do a good action by stealth, and have it found out by 
accident. 

Don't let us be afraid of enthusiasm. There is 
more lack of heart than of brain. The world is not 
starving for need of education half as much as for 
warm, earnest interest of soul for soul. We agree 
with the Indian who, when talked to about having too 
much zeal, said: "I think it is better for the pot to boil 
over than not to boil at all." 

An old Scotchman was taking his grist to the mill 
in sacks thrown across the back of his horse, when the 
horse stumbled and the grain fell to the ground. He 



THE LIBERAL SOUL. 639 

had not strength to raise it, being an aged man, but 
he saw a horseman riding along, and thought he would 
ask him for help. The horseman proved to be a 
nobleman who lived in the castle hard by, and the 
farmer could not muster courage to ask a favor of him. 
But the nobleman was a gentleman also, and, not wait- 
ing to be asked, he dismounted, and between them 
they lifted the grain to the horse's back. John — for he 
was a gentleman, too — lifted his cap and said : " My 
lord, how shall I ever thank you for your kindness?" 
"Very easily, John," replied the nobleman; "whenever 
you see another man in the same plight as you were 
in just now, help him, and that will be thanking me." 

The little I have seen of the world teaches me to 
look upon the errors of others in sorrow, not in anger. 
When I take the history of one poor heart that has 
sinned and suffered, and represent to myself the 
struggles and temptations it has passed through, the 
brief pulsations of joy, the feverish inquietude of hope 
and fear, the pressure of want, the desertion of friends, 
I would fain leave the erring soul of my fellow-man 
with Him from whose hand it came. 

Religion is life ; and life will cease without exercise. 
A church grows richer by giving its wealth. It grows 
stronger by the expenditure of its strength, just as the 
blacksmith's arm strengthens with every sturdy blow. 
Show us the. churches that have organized mission 
bands, and send forth missionaries to foreign lands, 
and we will show, by actual statistics, that they have 
received constant accessions of strength. For every 
new root striking into deeper soil, for every branch 



64O WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

spreading out in clearer light and fuller sunshine, the 
parent tree has grown larger and healthier. 

On the other hand, churches that have closed their 
hearts to foreign work have declined in numbers and 
in strength. You will remember that Andrew Fuller 
saved the church at Kettering from declension and 
extinction by enlisting its energies in the foreign field. 
While they worked for self the Lord did not work with 
them. 

Twenty-seven years after its establishment the 
Sandwich Island mission must have broken up and 
disbanded, had they not extended their sympathies and 
efforts to embrace others more destitute. Dr. Ander- 
son, in a lecture on "The Development of Modern 
Missions," says, " It is impossible for mission churches 
to reach their highest and truest prosperity without the 
aid of what is to them a foreign mission." And it is 
equally true of our home churches that their only sal- 
vation from effeminacy and decay lies in a hearty 
espousal of the cause of missions. Confined within 
the narrow circle of home, sympathies grow weak, 
energies slacken ; love loses its strongest stimulant — 
unselfish devotion ; and faith lacks the vindication and 
confirmation which crowns its conquests over bar- 
barism. As the Chinese woman's foot, cramped and 
confined, renders weak and nerveless her whole physi- 
cal nature, so the dwarfing and narrowing of Christian 
sympathy and charity enervate the whole character. 
When ecclesiastical tyranny tried to mould the free 
thought of the Puritans by ritual and litany, and even 
to curb its expression by chains and prison walls, it 






THE LIBERAL SOUL. 64 1 

sought a broader field for expansion in the New 
World ; and the remarkable growth of their principles 
attests God's approval of their exodus to a wider 
sphere. The gospel is like leaven ; it leavens the 
whole lump. It is like a mustard-tree which shall fill 
the whole earth. 

It is when we think more of our duties than our 
rights ; when we are slow to take offense, and ready 
to forgive ; when we strive earnestly to overcome evil 
with good, then it is that we have the richest, largest 
manhood, and touch the higher levels of Christian 
thought and life. 

Be indifferent to nothing which has any relation to 
the welfare of men. Be not afraid of diminishing 
your own happiness by seeking that of others. De- 
vise liberal things, and let not avarice shut up your 
hand from giving to him that needeth, and to promote 
the cause of piety and humanity. 

Charity is a universal duty which it is in every 
man's power sometimes to practice, since every degree 
of assistance given to another upon proper motives is 
an act of charity; and there is scarcely any man in 
such a state of imbecility as that he may not, on some 
occasions, benefit his neighbor. 

All truly consecrated men learn, little by little, that 
what they are consecrated to is not joy or sorrow, but 
a divine idea and a profound obedience, which can find 
their full expression, not in joy and not in sorrow, but 
in the mysterious and inseparable mingling of the two. 

Running water is sweet. It is your tight tank that 
gets slimy, and putrid, and unwholesome. He who 

41 



642 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

opens his eyes to see the wants and woes of other 
people, and goes to work to relieve them, will some- 
how insensibly forget to make a fuss about his own 
trifles. 

There was once a minister of the gospel who never 
built a church ; who never preached in one ; who never 
proposed a church fair to buy a new carpet; who 
never founded a new sect ; who never belonged to 
any sect; who frequented the houses of publicans, and 
ate and drank with sinners ; who never received a 
salary ; who never asked for one ; who never wore a 
black suit or a white necktie ; who never used a prayer 
book, or a hymn book, or wrote a sermon ; who never 
hired a cornet soloist to draw souls to hear the 
"Word"; who never advertised his sermons; who 
never took a text for his sermons ; who never went 
through a course of theological study ; who never 
was ordained ; who was never even " converted " ; 
who never went to' conference. Who was he? 
Christ. 

It is not the highest and noblest who murmur at 
being set to work which they consider beneath them, 
and who have a supreme sense of their own dignity. 
They know that nothing which is honorable and use- 
ful can disgrace them ; only a vain conceit of their 
own abilities and importance can do that. Moses 
tended sheep as calmly as if there was no other occu- 
pation for a great man, and he was as truly prince 
sitting there, crook in hand, in the desert, as when he 
headed the armies of Egpyt. The angel, bidden to 
cook bread for the sleeping prophet, did not feel his 



THE LIBERAL SOUL. 643, 

dignity insulted, and was none the less an angel than 
when he stood beside the throne in heaven. 

You can hear men say, "A man of my education 
and experience ought to do better than that." Yes, 
do better, if you can, if there is anything better at 
hand. Head Egypt's armies or guide Israel's wander- 
ings, when God calls you to do these, but in the mean- 
time, tend sheep, if need be, as cheerfully as you 
would do the greater things. " I never expected I 
would come to this, I was not brought up to such 
work." The son of Pharaoh's daughter was not 
brought up to be a shepherd in the wilderness; yet 
God gave him just that work to do for forty years. 
Let us in very shame, then, utter no complaints of the 
lot which God has given us, unless we have more 
ability and education than had Moses, and have occu- 
pied higher positions, or have been kept for more than 
forty years at work our vanity says is beneath us. 

There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth ; and 
there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it 
tendeth to poverty. As the purse is emptied the heart 
is filled. What we employ in charitable uses during 
our lives is given away from ourselves : what we be- 
queath at our death is given from others only, as our 
nearest relations. 

He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the 
Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him 
again. The Koran teaches that " Prayer carries us 
half-way to God, fasting brings us to the door of his 
palace, and almsgiving procures us admission." 

Many Christians regulate their giving by that of 



644 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

some one else; they will give as much as others, but 
no more. This is contrary to the scriptural rule. We 
cannot exercise this grace according to our brother's 
rule any more than we can thus exercise other Chris- 
tian graces. We could as well say, we will pray as 
others pray, we will know as others know, we will love 
as others love, no more, no less. We must give as 
the Lord has prospered us, according to what we have. 
If God has prospered us abundantly it is our duty to 
give liberally. We are stewards of what we possess, 
and where much is given much is required. Under 
the old dispensation a tenth was required, but we are 
under grace, a thoughtful gratitude is our rule, and 
not ad valorem assessment. It would be contrary to 
the New Testament to assess the members according 
to the tax-list ; room must be given to abound in this 
grace. Barnabas is at liberty to sell his land and give 
the proceeds to God, and the poor widow may cast in 
her two mites ; gratitude must not be hampered. 

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase !) 

Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, 

And saw within the moonlight of his room, 

Making it rich and like a lily in bloom, 

An angel writing in a book of gold. 

Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold ; 

And to the presence in the room he said, 

" What writest thou ? " The vision raised its head, 

And, with a look made of all sweet accord, 

Answered, " The names of those who love the Lord." 

"And is mine one?" asked Abou. "Nay, not so," 

Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low, 

But cheerily still ; and said, "I pray thee, then, 

Write me as one that loves his fellow-men," 

The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night 

It came again, with a great wakening light, 

And showed the names whom love of God had blest ; 

And, lo ! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest. Leigh Hunt. 



PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 645 



©AST, ©RESENT AND FUTURE. 

"My days are swifter than a courier, they fly away. 
They are as the swift ships, as the eagle." So said 
Job — he who had sat in quiet contemplation beneath 
his palm-tree in the long summers of Edom, while four- 
score years passed by, and who had still a hundred 
and forty years of happy and restful life ahead of him. 
And yet his days were swift as the flying courier, as 
the ship careering before the wind, as the eagle swoop- 
ing down upon its quarry, as the dry leaf in the storm, 
as the hurrying cloud. Job looked abroad for simili- 
tudes of evanescence, of unreality, of celerity, with 
which to compare his days. But his days, hour for 
hour, were longer than our own. Of the tremendous 
rush with which we pass the milestones of life, he knew 
nothing. At the period when our heads grow frosty, 
our brows show the furrows of care, and sorrow and 
toil, his was smooth with the flush of youth. 

But we do not envy Job. Into our days, as short 
as they are, are compressed more of knowledge, 
experience, and perhaps of pleasure than Job could 
see in all his years. Even if it were otherwise, we do 
not look regretfully at the days as they speed back- 
ward from us. Let them fly. There is a whole eter- 
nity of them ahead of us, and all that are gone do not 
diminish the store. The eagle swooping from the 
cliff will quickly reach the valley. The courier will 
deliver his message. The ship will grate upon the 



646 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. . 

sands of the far-off shore. But the line of the souPs 
flight reaches through eternity. It will be speeding on 
in ever increasing strength when the visible heavens 
are rolled together as a scroll, folded and laid aside. 

We hear much of misspent years. They are not 
wasted unless they are given to the service of Satan 
and to the neglect of self and God. Every hour of 
innocent joy, with family or friends, books or travel, is 
well spent. Let them fly! We are homesick to see 
that sweet sister who has been upon the other shore 
these twenty years, and the face of that dear father who 
is with her; and, above all, that Elder Brother whose 
bright majestic brow will beam upon us. Let them 
trebly outstrip the steed, the leaf, the ship, the cloud. 
Freight them with love, with charity, with achieve- 
ment, if we can, for they rush in a curve like planets, 
and will round in upon us, bearing their freight with 
them when we strike on the other side. If they are 
bright, they are bright because they fly. If they are 
gloomy, they were better gone than staying. We 
shall lift up no sad requiem over the disappearance of 
the days and years as they speed past us. 

We have arrived at the days foretold by the pro- 
phet, when "knowledge shall be increased and many 
shall run to and fro." The intellectual progress of the 
race during the last half century has indeed been great. 
But admiration is not the only feeling of the thought- 
ful mind when observing this striking advance in intel- 
lectual acquirement. We see that man has not yet 
fully mastered the knowledge he has acquired. He 
runs to and fro. He rushes from one extreme to the 



PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 647 

other. How many chapters of modern history, both 
political and religious, are full of the records of this 
mental vacillation of our race, of this illogical and 
absurd tendency to pass from one extreme to the point 
farthest from it. 

Mr. Stuart Mill has said in Parliament in connec- 
tion with this subject, that " the tyranny of established 
custom has entirely passed away." Nothing can be 
more true than this assertion. As a rule, the past is 
now looked upon with doubt, with suspicion, often with 
a certain sort of contempt, very far from being always 
consistent with sound reason. At present the more 
startling an assertion, the farther it wanders from all 
past experience, the greater are its chances of attract- 
ing attention, of gaining adherents, of achieving at 
least a partial and temporary success. Such is the 
restlessness of human nature that it will often, from 
mere weak hankering after change, hug to its bosom 
the wildest theories, and yield them a temporary alle- 
giance. 

The old man looks down and thinks of the past. 
The young man looks up and thinks of the future. 
The child looks everywhere and thinks of nothing. 
And there are a great many children in the world. 

Old people look backward. Most of their joys 
lie in the past. The years that are gone are full of 
happy memories and associations which attract their 
hearts. The light of other days is sweet and pleasant. 
Bowed down with cares and smitten with griefs, they 
reach back the hand of longing to seize once more, if 
they may, the experiences that were theirs in the long 



648 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

ago. But this is not the case with young people. 
They have their life to live, and they look forward with 
eager desire for its pleasures and work. With glow- 
ing imaginings of what they mean to be and to do, 
they build castles in the air, whose flimsy walls they 
hope to see transmuted into structures of solid and 
substantial reality. The thought of hindrance and 
failure they resolutely drive from their minds. 

A little more than a century ago there was not a 
medical school in America. Fifty years ago a large 
portion of our country was without free public schools. 
Our vast array of theological, art and science schools 
are all of modern origin. Newspapers, magazines, 
and especially children's literature, were unknown a 
few generations back. Think of the time when every 
patient was bled; fevers were treated without water; 
bones were set and limbs amputated without chloro- 
form ; mercurial salivation was the universal cure-all. 
The time was when a stove was not allowed in the 
meeting-house ; a preacher was unpopular who did not 
talk an hour or two in his sermon ; the different de- 
nominations hurled anathemas at one another, and 
believed that they served God thereby. 

You might better pluck the blossom off the tree 
and attempt to crowd it back into the bud, or catch 
the eagle that flies in heaven and attempt to put it 
back into the shell, or take the full-grown man and put 
him in long clothes and rock him in his mother's 
cradle, than attempt to put the nineteenth century back 
into the clothes, or shell, or bud of the sixteenth. 

To-day has been a long time coming. It has been 



PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 649 

on the wing ever since the morning stars first sang 
together. Every additional age has given it a treasure 
to bring along. This morning the casket was opened 
and made us rich. This evening the messenger will 
gather up all that we do not use of these treasures 
and carry them away. This ought to be a very busy 
day. 

We live amid the blessed results of Christianity. 
The leaven, so little when first inserted, is rapidly fer- 
menting, and will soon leaven the entire mass of 
humanity. The mustard tree, so small, has sprung 
into a great tree, affording " leaves for the healing of 
the nations," and extending its branches for a shelter to 
the weak and helpless, and affording a cooling shade 
for the rest of those who labor and are heavy laden. 
The kingdom, first promised to a little flock, has ex- 
tended its boundaries far and wide, exerting its 
benign influences over the civilized and the barbarous, 
the learned and the ignorant, the rich and the poor, 
the high and the low ; blessing the king upon his 
throne and the peasant in his cottage ; purifying the 
centers of civilization, and pursuing men with its con- 
servative and elevating powers, to the outermost 
verge of human society. 

The present age may be termed, by way of dis- 
tinction, the age of sentiment; a word which, in the 
implication it now bears, was unknown to our plain 
ancestors. Sentiment is the varnish of virtue to con- 
ceal the deformity of vice ; and it is not uncommon 
for the same persons to make a jest of religion, to 
break through the most solemn ties and engagements, 



65O WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

to practice every art of latent fraud and open seduc- 
tion, and yet to value themselves on speaking and 
writing sentimentally. 

With America feeding nearly all the old world, it 
is difficult to realize that wheat was unknown in this 
country prior to its discovery by Columbus. Down 
to the end of the seventeenth century it was a princi- 
pal article of food only among the more wealthy ; and 
V the servants in their houses (in England) were still 
furnished with oats, barley and rye." Maize, or Indian 
corn, was the food principally used in America. At 
the end of the eighteenth century (less than one 
hundred years ago) an English historian writes : "So 
small was the quantity of wheat used in the county of 
Cumberland, that it was only a rich family that used a 
peck of wheat in the course of the year, and that was 
used at Christmas. The usual treat for a stranger 
was a thick oat-cake, called * haver-bannock, ' and 
butter." 

The resources of America are so vast as to be 
almost incomprehensible, and we can feel little doubt 
that it is destined to support the most dense popula- 
tion of any country upon the globe. The development 
of our trade with other countries is progressing in 
an astonishingly rapid manner. The Manchester 
" Guardian " says : " A few years ago not an ounce of 
American beef reached our shores; now it comes in 
thousands and millions of tons." We are even sup- 
plying many foreign countries with books and book- 
making machinery. 

A few years ago the cultivation of fruit, especially 



PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 65 1 

of tropical fruit, was scarcely known. Now, the value 
of lemons, oranges, bananas, pineapples and other 
fruits of a like character, used in the United States 
alone, amounts to many millions of dollars each year, 
and their use is rapidly increasing. Melons, so 
abundant now, came originally from Asia. In the 
seventeenth century the melon began to be»cultivated 
in Europe. 

It is well to look forward. To anticipate the future 
and to prepare for it is not only perfectly proper but 
eminently wise. But then we should be careful that 
we look forward to something worthy and noble. To 
have only anticipations and expectations of selfish and 
worldly profits and pleasures is to cherish the dreams 
of a fool. To aim to spend the life for God and man 
and the interests of the higher nature is to lay the 
foundations of a career full of the truest joy and 
largest success. O young people, standing on the 
threshold of a new year, look forward to something 
worthy your nobler nature. Then, when life nears its 
close, looking backward with the aged apostle, you 
may say: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished 
my course, I have kept the faith ;" and looking for- 
ward, may say also with him: " Henceforth is reserved 
for me a crown of righteousness." 

As the eye which has gazed at the sun cannot 
immediately discern any other object ; as the man who 
has been accustomed to behold the ocean turns with 
contempt from a stagnant pool ; so the mind which has 
contemplated eternity overlooks and despises the 
things of time. 



652 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

The golden harvest lies in the future, not the past. 
The true Eden is to come. Out of seemingly chaotic 
elements God is evolving His kingdom of righteous- 
ness and joy and peace. 



&50NDEI^3 OF ftAlFin^E. 

It is a great mortification to the vanity of man that 
his utmost art and industry can never equal the 
meanest of nature's productions, either for beauty or 
value. Art is only the underworkman, and is em- 
ployed to give a few strokes of embellishment to those 
pieces which come from the hand of the master. 

What can be more foolish than to think that all 
this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by 
chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an 
oyster ! 

It is by the contemplation of nature that we are 
raised up to a just appreciation of nature's God. The 
world is full of wonders and the more of nature's 
secrets a man discovers, the more he appreciates his 
former ignorance, and the vast domain of undiscovered 
and hidden treasures. No two countries are alike, 
and no two travelers will chance upon exactly the same 
things, hence the great variety of descriptions given 
in detail. We hope that the little taste here given of 
the marvelous things recorded of this wonderful sub- 
ject, will inspire many a young reader with thirst for 
further knowledge, and zeal for patient investigation. 



WONDERS OF NATURE. 653 

A bunch of grapes from Santa Barbara, lately 
shown in San Francisco, was three feet long and six 
feet in circumference, and weighed one hundred and 
twenty-five pounds. There is a grapevine in Santa 
Barbara, planted there by the old Spanish monks, 
which is larger around than a man's body, at its base, 
and bears thousands of pounds of grapes every year. 

Victoria, in New South Wales, is a noted place for 
the growth of perfume-yielding plants, because such 
plants as the mignonette, sweet verbena, jasmine, 
rose, lavender, acacia, heliotrope, rosemary, wall 
flower, laurel, orange and the sweet-scented geraniums 
are found there in greater perfection than in any other 
part of the world. An acre of jasmine plants, eighty 
thousand in number, will produce five thousand pounds 
of flowers, valued at one thousand two hundred and 
fifty dollars; an acre of rose trees, ten thousand in 
number, will realize three hundred and seventy-five 
dollars. 

The full-grown mahogany tree is one of the 
monarchs of tropical America. Its vast trunk and 
massive arms, rising to a lofty height and spreading 
with graceful sweep over immense spaces covered with 
beautiful foliage, bright, glossy, light, airy, clinging so 
long to the spray as to make it almost evergreen, 
present a rare combination of loveliness and grandeur. 
The leaves are very small, delicate, and polished like 
those of the laurel. The flowers are small and white, 
or greenish yellow. Lumbermen, in felling a tree, 
build a platform twelve feet high and cut it above the 
platform, thus relinquishing twelve to fifteen feet of the 



654 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

largest part of the tree. • Yet some trees have yielded 
twelve thousand superficial feet of lumber, and have 
sold for fifteen thousand dollars. 

The wonders of nature found in the Tropics are 
innumerable. Agassiz counted over two thousand 
varieties of fresh-water fish. Any one attending the 
great Centennial exhibition of 1876 must have been 
bewildered at the great variety of curious vegetable 
products shown in the Brazilian and other South 
American exhibits. Nor were these one-tenth part 
of what may be seen by visiting those countries. 

Boussingault has analyzed the milk from the cow- 
tree of South America. He finds the composition 
more like cream than milk, containing, however, all the 
elements of milk, but in proportions different from 
those of milk. The milk is considered very fattening, 
which might be inferred from its composition. 

There is a monster orange-tree near Fort Harley, 
Florida, that measures nine feet one inch in circumfer- 
ence. It is over fifty years old, and some seasons has 
had over nine thousand oranges on it. 

One of the wonders of the American forests is the 
fir-tree of Puget Sound. The trees average two hun- 
dred feet high, and some specimens have been cut that 
measured three hundred and twenty feet in length and 
twelve feet in diameter at the base, with a straight and 
well proportioned log length of ninety feet to the first 
limb. 

The mammoth trees of Calaveras, California, were 
first discovered by Mr. Dowd in 1850. Within an area 
of fifty acres there are twenty trees that measure about 



WONDERS OF NATURE. 655 

seventy-eight feet around the base. They average 
about three hundred feet in height. One of them 
which was cut down measured three hundred and two 
feet in length and contained five hundred thousand 
cubic feet of timber. It was supposed to be about 
three thousand years of age. 

A cypress tree seventy-five feet high, ten feet in 
diameter, and more than two thousand eight hundred 
years old, was recently destroyed near Sparta, Greece. 
This celebrated remnant of the life of bygone ages was 
described by Pausanias four hundred years before 
Christ. The Spartans mourn its loss. 

Australia possesses more vegetable curiosities than 
perhaps any other country on the earth. It has a 
"devil " tree ; another that stings if you touch its leaves 
only ; while there are great numbers of trees with use- 
ful and healthy food as fruit. 

Dr. Buckner, a missionary to the Indians, tells of a 
discovery he made, and says: "I was not long in 
deciding that I was in the midst of a petrified forest of 
extinct trees, unlike any living specimens that I have 
ever seen. There were no whole trees, nor any with 
roots and branches ; but I am sure they were once a 
vegetable growth ; and my opinion is they belonged 
to the flora of a tropical climate: Some of the speci- 
mens actually measured fifteen inches in diameter 
while some, I think, were even larger, and usually the 
broken pieces resembled grindstones ; but some were 
three or four feet high, for they invariably stood on 
their larger base, none lying prone, and all the bases 
buried in the earth. The specimens showed that the 



656 WELL-SPRINGS OF TP T TH. 

vegetables had been of rapid growth, the trunks being 
densely covered with leaves, for the supposed decora- 
tions, like an impression made with the prongs of a 
fork, were nothing more than the points where leaves 
had once been attached. From the diameter of the 
leases and the taper, as shown by the specimens, I 
judge the trees had been quite tall, and there were 
shown many reasons, which I will not give here, for 
believing they were of rapid growth, of a succulent 
nature like the turnip, cabbage or sweet potato, and 
it may be that they furnished agreeable food for the 
mastodons and megatheriums whose fossil bones are 
found in this country. 

" I have been a curiosity-monger all my life, and 
have gathered many specimens, but these. are the most 
beautiful petrifactions of vegetables that I have ever 
seen, and I have inspected many museums. 

" The beautiful indentures that look as if made by a 
skilled artist are as uniform and regular as anything in 
nature or art, and could be no more the work of 
chance than could a copy of Shakespeare be produced 
by throwing down carelessly the English alphabet." 

The "Scotsman," speaking of American wonders, 
says: "The greatest cataract in the world is the Falls of 
Niagara. The greatest cave in the world is the Mam- 
moth Cave of Kentucky. The greatest river in the 
world is the Mississippi. The largest lake in the 
world is Lake Superior, which is truly an inland sea, 
being four hundred and thirty miles long and one 
thousand feet deep. The longest railroad in the world 
is the Union Pacific Railroad, which is over three 




2 






> - 



2 






WONDERS OF NATURE. 657 

thousand miles. The greatest natural bridge is over 
Cedar Creek, in Virginia. The greatest mass of solid 
iron in the world is the great Iron Mountain in Mis- 
souri. The largest deposit of Anthracite coal in the 
world is in Pennsylvania." 

In 1872 the region at the source of the Yellow- 
stone river, in the Rocky mountains, sixty-five miles 
long by fifty-five miles broad, was reserved by con- 
gress as a "public park or pleasuring ground, for the 
benefit and enjoyment of the people." It is a wonder- 
ful tract of land, filled with stupendous wildness in all 
forms, and a prodigality of color. It contains the most 
striking of all the mountains, gorges, falls, rivers and 
lakes in this country, if not in the world. There are 
numerous hot springs, boiling geysers, cataracts, lakes, 
fountains of „ steam and other curiosities, crowded 
together. No spot upon the face of this earth has 
such a fascination for the lovers of Nature's wonders 
as this great National Park. 

The lowest point within the Yellowstone National 
Park is said to be the mouth of Gardiner's river on its 
northern boundary line. This is five thousand four 
hundred feet above the level of the sea. Yellowstone 
lake is seven thousand eight hundred feet above the 
sea level. 

The Yosemite Valley and Falls, of California, is 
doubtless, next to the Niagara Falls, the most cele- 
brated of all American natural wonders. Poets have 
described the scenery of this valley, and painters have 
portrayed its colors and form, until it has become 
familiar to most people. The falls are two thousand 

42 



658 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

seven hundred feet in height. The first fall is sixteen 
hundred feet ; the second fall seven hundred feet ; the 
lower one four hundred feet. Our steel plate gives 
the most natural and realistic view of this great natural 
wonder that has ever been made. 

The Pictured Rocks on the Southern shore of Lake 
Superior are among the most wonderful formations of 
the kind known on the face of the globe. They are 
of great height, and washed by the waves into the 
most fantastic and picturesque forms. The iron ore 
streaked throughout the sandstone has been washed 
down and discolored by the rains of centuries, until it 
looks, as one traveler expressed it, "as though the 
devil had taken his paintbrush and daubed away at 
random." 

Harper's Ferry, on the Potomac river, is a place 
long celebrated for its picturesque scenery, and de- 
scribed by President Jefferson in his enthusiastic 
manner, as one of the most attractive scenes upon 
earth. 

Dead Lake, in California, is peculiar in having no 
visible outlet, though a large stream runs into it. The 
Indian believes that it is bottomless, and marks the spot 
where a wicked tribed once sank into the ground. No 
Indian can be induced to go near it. 

There is a wonderful lake in Wright County, Iowa, 
called the Walled lake. It seems to have been walled 
in at some remote period. It has a belt of oak trees 
surrounding the lake. The water is clear and cold, 
the soil sandy. It occupies two thousand eight hun- 
dred acres and has a depth of water as great as twenty- 



WONDERS OF NATURE. 659 

five feet. It is singular that no one has been able to 
ascertain where the water comes from nor where it 
goes, yet it is always clear and fresh. 

Spokane Falls, Washington Territory, claims to 
have a medical lake a mile and a half long that would 
have satisfied even Ponce de Leon's search for the 
fountain of youth. The water is clear and of a dark 
color, and, besides curing skin diseases of men and 
beasts, relieves nervous troubles, rheumatism, paraly- 
sis and similar ailments. . The water has not been 
analyzed, but tastes of salt and borax, is buoyant as 
the Dead Sea, and the only animal life it sustains is a 
species of jelly-fish. The lake has no visible outlet, 
and although fed by several small streams, never in- 
creases or decreases in size. In the slightest breeze 
the water lashes into a foam which makes a superior 
soap, and almost anything can be cleansed in the lake 
much better than by the most powerful chemicals. 
The water makes a magnificent sheep-wash and will 
invariably relieve sheep of the dreadful disease known 
as "scab," its wonderful medicinal qualities coming to 
be known some two years ago through an old para- 
lytic sheep-raiser who drove his flock into the*lake and 
found that the bath cured those so afflicted. 

About sixty miles north of Galena, Texas, near the 
town of Liberty, there is a spring the water of which is 
quite acid, simulating lemonade, and those who taste 
it, like it so well that they drink it almost immoder- 
ately. When you feel hot it is quite delicious, and 
under any circumstances, whether hot or cold, the 
drinking of it produces perspiration, with no unpleas- 



660 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

ant effect afterwards. The spring has no outlet. It is 
probably sixty feet across it, and it is covered with a 
white froth or foam, which upon close examination 
appears like cream of tartar on a wine case. It kills 
insects, worms and other small animals that come near 
and use it. No fish or smallest evidence of life is seen 
within its waters. 

The Galveston "News" declares that immense 
bodies of fresh water underlie a large portion of Texas, 
and that occasionally some of this vast reservoir finds 
vent in rivers like the San Marcos, San Antonio and 
others, which burst forth in full volume, and, unlike 
most rivers, are larger at their heads than at their 
mouths. 

In Elko county, Nevada, there is a most remarkable 
stratum of steatite, a peculiar kind of clay, resting hori- 
zontally in a steep bluff of volcanic matter, from three 
to ten feet in diameter. It is easily worked and is a 
veritable soap mine. In fact, the farmers, cattle-men 
and sheep-herders in that region all use the natural 
article for washing purposes. Chemically considered 
it is a hydrated silicate of alumina, magnesia, potash 
and lime. When the steatite is first dug from the stra- 
tum it looks precisely like immense masses of mottled 
castile soap, the mottling element being a small per- 
centage of iron oxide. A firm in Elko have under- 
taken to introduce this natural soap into the market. 

In many parts of the world there are stones that 
travel, strange as it may seem. They were first found 
in Australia. Similar curiosities have recently been 
found in Nevada, which are described as almost per- 



WONDERS OF NATURE. 66 1 

fectly round, the majority of them as large as a walnut 
and of an irony nature. When distributed about on 
the floor, table or other level surface, within two or 
three feet of each other, they immediately begin trav- 
eling towards a common center, and there huddle like a 
lotofeggsina nest. A single stone, removed to a 
distance of three and a half feet, upon being released, 
at once started off with wonderful and somewhat com- 
ical celerity to join its fellows ; taken away four or 
five feet, it remains motionless. They are found in 
a region that is comparatively level, and is nothing 
but bare rock. Scattered over this barren region are 
little basins, from a few feet to a rod or two in diameter ; 
and it is in the bottom of these that the rolling stones are 
found. They are from the size of a pea to five or six 
inches in diameter. The cause of these stones rolling 
together is doubtless to be found in the material of 
which they are composed, which appears to be lode- 
stone, or magnetic iron ore. 

The highest mountain on the earth is Gaurisankar, 
or Mount Everest, in the eastern Himalayan district. It 
is twenty-nine thousand and two feet high. In this dis- 
trict there are thirty-four mountains over twenty thou- 
sand feet in highland thirty-two more than ten thousand 
feet. The second highest peak is the Dapsang, in 
Western Thibet, twenty-eight thousand two hundred 
and seventy-eight feet high; the third, Kintchinjunga, 
twenty-eight thousand one hundred and fifty-six feet ; 
the fourth, the Sisbut, peak, in Nepaul, twenty-seven 
thousand seven hundred and ninty-nine. Dhawala- 
giri, in Nepaul, which was formerly considered the 



662 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

highest mountain on the earth, is now ranked as fifth, 
being but twenty-six thousand eight hundred and 
twenty-six feet high. 

Mount Cotopaxi is counted the greatest known 
volcano, and is situated in South America. Vesuvi- 
ous is the best known and most famous of all volca- 
noes, and lies just back of Naples in Italy. Mt. Etna 
on the island of Sicily, and Hecla of Iceland are also 
quite noted, and believed by some to show signs of 
internal connection. 

The Giant's Causeway and Fingal's Cave on the 
Northwest coast of Scotland, are described in all our 
school geographies. The cave is two hundred and 
twelve feet long. The celebrated maelstrom or whirl- 
pool on the coast of Norway has been the terror of the 
navigators of the Northern seas in all ages. Hell-gate 
in New York harbor, at certain stages of the tide, used 
to be almost as dangerous. The account of the 
blasting away of the rocks by which the whirlpool was 
destroyed is very interesting. One of the most won- 
derful things in the world is the so called "Gulf- 
stream," of the Northern Atlantic. It seems to 
flow from the Gulf of Mexico, and continues a distinct 
warm stream of water for thousands of miles, reach- 
ing almost to the shores of Greenland, and finally 
exhausting itself on- the western shores of Europe and 
Great Britain. 

Ebal and Gerizim are mountains mentioned in the 
Bible, and have been pointed out by certain skeptics 
as one of the instances of absurd and impossible 
Bible descriptions. An English traveler recently 



WONDERS OF NATURE. 663- 

visited these mountains, and thought he would see. if 
the story told about them in the twenty-seventh chap- 
ter of Deuteronomy was true. You will remember 
that Moses placed the twelve tribes, six on one of 
these mountains, and six on the other, and each set 
spoke certain blessings and cursings which were dis- 
tinctly understood by the people in the valley between. 
This traveler got a companion to climb Geriziril, while 
he toiled up Ebal. When so far apart, that their 
horses looked like mere dots on the hillside, each 
halted, and one began to read aloud from a book, feel- 
ing, as he expressed it, ".as if I might as well address 
the House of Commons from Lambeth Palace." He 
paused, and great was his surprise to distinctly here 
the words of the twenty-third Psalm, from the little 
dot on the opposite hillside, and this in spite of con- 
versation carried on by some Turkish soldiers near. 
On meeting again, it was found that each had heard 
the other perfectly, though they spoke in ordinary 
tones. 

Mr. John Kee, of Talbot county, Ga., is responsi- 
ble for the following : "It was early Sunday morning. 
My daughter was engaged in sweeping off the front 
porch, when her attention was attracted by the plain- 
tive cries of young chickens and the distressed cluck- 
ing of a hen. The sound came from a pile of leaves 
under some poplar trees in the yard, and, hurrying to 
the spot, she found the little chicks all stuck up with 
leaves, rolling about struggling to free themselves, and 
two of the little sufferers were stuck together. She 
picked these tw r o up, and, coming to the house, called 



664 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

me. On examination we found them covered with a 
sticky substance, which seemed to have come off the 
leaves. I went out into the yard and found it on all 
the leaves, and, tasting, was surprised to find it honey. 
Looking around I could see it glistening in the sun- 
shine like diamonds on every leaflet, and on the porch 
for two or three feet were splotches of it. Several 
neighbors dropped in during the day whom I told of 
the honey shower, supposing it had been general, but 
they were incredulous until shown evidences of it. In 
the evening of the same day I noticed a mist between 
me and the sun, and a closer examination disclosed the 
fact that we were having a repetition of the phenom- 
enon, which was witnessed by a dozen people. While 
it did not run off the house either morning or evening, 
it covered the leaves of the trees and shrubs, and was, 
without doubt, honeydew, and that, too } from a cloud- 
less sky." 

We speak of the silvery brightness of Mercury, 
the mild radiance of venus, the fiery splendor of Mars. 
By the aid of the telescope we may gaze upon Saturn, 
with his "sky-girt rings" and seven moons, and view 
Jupiter, with his belts and satellites. While many 
believe these planets to be inhabited, others, equally 
wise, argue against such a possibility. 

The whole animal kingdom consists of hundreds of 
thousands of different kinds of beings constructed on 
only four different plans, each one of which is expressed 
in thousands of different ways. 

Dr. Van Lennep, who has spent almost a lifetime 
in Palestine and the East, tells of the remarkable 



WONDERS OF NATURE. 665, 

manner in which the swallows and other small birds, 
such as the ortolas, darnagas, bee figs, wrens, titmouse,, 
smaller thrushes, and finches, get over the Mediter- 
ranean Sea preparatory for wintering in Tropical 
Africa. As the winter approaches, flocks of cranes, 
which are also migratory, fly southward and on their 
backs bear the little birds of weaker wing over the 
sea into a summer clime. 

The weaver birds of Africa are the most ingenious 
of all birds. One variety build their nests in the shape 
of an umbrella upon a tree, several hundred birds 
being sheltered in one nest. Another variety build on 
slender twigs over a stream of running water. Still 
another, builds its nests on the backs of the wild buf- 
faloes, where it finds food in a kind of flea that infests 
the latter, and serves also as a sentinel to warn the 
animal of approaching danger. 

The agricultural ant of Texas is perhaps the most 
intelligent and wonderful insect to be found upon the 
face of the earth. The descriptions given of them by 
naturalists read like the tales of the Aztec races or the 
discoveries of Nineveh and Babylon. 

We are so accustomed to think of four-footed 
creatures as hunting game, that the idea that a fish 
might be made use of in that way seems strange. 
Nevertheless, there is a fish living in the Gulf of 
Mexico which is sent out by its master to hunt turtles, 
they being considered good for soup making. The 
reve was noticed by Christopher Columbus, who related 
the fact of seeing this fish sent out fishing by the native 
Indians. This fish is long and slim, with a curious flat 



666 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

head, on the top of which is a singular oval apparatus 
which operates like a sucker. With this sucker the 
reve sticks to another fish, and so has him fast for 
dinner. I should consider his table rather inconve- 
nient, being on the top of his head, but he seems to 
get along with it very well ; having the lower jaw 
much longer than the upper, he somehow draws the 
food into his mouth. When the reve is wanted to 
catch turtles, his master fastens a cord around his tail 
and throws him into the water where he sees a fine 
turtle. The reve immediately fastens himself to his 
turtleship, and the man at the end of the cord draws 
him up out of the water, deprives him of his dinner, 
and throws him back into the water to fish again. 
Reve is the Spanish word for reversed, and was given 
to this fellow because he looks as though he were up- 
side down, or reversed. 

Gray hairs sometimes come prematurely by inher- 
itance, trouble, or the large use of water containing 
lime. The sudden blanching of a head of hair is fre- 
quently caused by severe nervous shocks, and numer- 
ous historical and traditional cases may be cited in 
which sudden fear or overwhelming news has turned 
the hair white in a few hours. The case of Marie An- 
toinette is one of the most tender and touching, for in 
a single night her rich dark hair was changed to silver 
gray. A Sepoy of the Bengal army was taken pris- 
oner in 1858, and the fright he received caused his hair 
to become completely whitened within half an hour, 
the change being so rapid as to cause his captor to 
exclaim in astonishment, " He is turning gray ! " Un- 



WONDERS OF ART. 667 

der the influence of fear or any great mental shock, 
the blood recedes from the surface of the body to the 
heart, and it is supposed the same influence may cause 
the coloring fluid of the hair to retire to the root- 
bulbs, where it remains thereafter. Gray hair has 
been known to become dark without the chemist's aid. 
In 1774, Nazarelia, a man one hundred and five years 
old, was presented by nature with a new set of teeth 
and a restoration of the black hair of his youth. John 
Weeks was blessed with a regeneration of the color of 
his hair a short time before his death, which occurred 
at the age of one hundred and fourteen ; and Sir John 
Sinclair, dying at one hundred and ten, rejoiced in a 
youthful head of hair during the latter years of his 
life. Dr. Richards has reported .the case of a man 
who had three changes of his hair from black to white 
during his life, the first taking place when he was about 
thirty-five years old. 

Q50NDEI^5 OF fillip. 

Strange thing art, especially music. Out of an 
art a man may be so trivial you would mistake him 
for an imbecile, at best a grown infant. Put him into 
his art, and how high he soars above you! How 
quietly he enters into a heaven of which he has be- 
come a denizen, and, unlocking the gates with his 
golden key, admits you to follow, an humble, reverent 
worshipper. 



668 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

In art there is a point of perfection, as of goodness 
or maturity in nature; he who is able to perceive it, 
and who loves it, has perfect taste ; he who does not 
feel it, or loves on this side or that, has an imperfect 
taste. Never judge a work of art by its defects. 

He who seeks popularity in art closes the door on 
his own genius, as he must needs paint for other minds 
and not for his own. The mother of useful arts is 
necessity ; that of the fine arts is luxury. Art is the 
right hand of Nature. The latter has only given us 
being, the former has made us men. Art does not 
imitate nature, but it founds itself on the study of 
nature — takes from nature the selections which best 
accord with its own intention, and then bestows on 
them that which nature does not possess, namely, the 
mind and the soul of man. 

We understand art to mean the work of man — 
simply that and nothing more. Hence everything 
made by man, all his contrivances, the tools by which 
he works, the productions of his greatest skill, the 
results of all his scientific research, are simply works 
of art. Some of these productions are indeed most 
wonderful ; we can barely touch upon the outlines, and 
draw only here and there a fragment from the great 
storehouse of knowledge, concerning the wonders of 
art, to which we thus hope to introduce you. 

The seven wonders of the world, in ancient times, 
were the Pyramids of Egypt, the Pharos of Alexandria, 
the walls and hanging gardens of Babylon, the Temple 
of Diana, the statue of the Olympian Jupiter, the 
Mausoleum of Artemesia, and the Colossus at Rhodes. 



WONDERS OF ART. 669 

The seven wonders of the world in modern times 
are the printing-press, the steam engine, the telegraph, 
the daguerreotype, the telephone, the phonograph and 
the electric light. 

The so-called " Seven Wonders " of the Ancients 
were mere trifles compared with those of the present 
time. The Brooklyn bridge, for example, would make 
the hanging gardens of Babylon a mere toy, while the 
whole seven wonders put together would sink into in- 
significance could their builders have seen a lightning 
express train at full speed. 

London covers nearly seven hundred square miles. 
It numbers more than four million inhabitants. It 
comprises one hundred thousand foreigners from every 
quarter of the globe. It contains more Roman 
Catholics than Rome itself; more Jews than the whole 
of Palestine ; more Irish than Dublin ; more Scotch- 
men than Edinburgh; more Welshmen than Cardiff. 
Has a birth every five minutes, and a death every eight 
minutes ; has seven accidents in every day in its seven 
thousand miles of streets ; has an addition of thirty- 
eight miles of new streets, most of which are lined with 
houses, every year; has one hundred and twenty-three 
persons every day, and forty-five thousand annually, 
added to its population ; has one hundred and seven- 
teen thousand habitual criminals on its police register ; 
and has thirty-eight thousand drunkards annually 
brought before its magistrates. 

Among the old cities of the world may be mentioned 
Damascus, in Asia, which was an old city when Rome 
was a wilderness, and still retains the same houses, 



67O WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

streets and city walls that then existed. In the new 
world, going to New Mexico in the far West, we find 
the city of Santa Fe, meaning in Spanish "Holy Faith," 
which dates back to 1542, when the Spaniards took 
possession of an old Aztec town standing on the same 
ground. " It was old when New York was a swamp, and 
hoary with age when Columbus discovered America." 

In Holland are the most remarkable levees or dikes 
in the world. They are often forty feet above ordinary 
high water and wide enough at the top for a common 
roadway. The whole expenditure for maintaining 
these levees is annually from two million to two million 
five hundred thousand dollars. The whole state of 
Holland, with but a small exception, has been re- 
deemed from the bottom of the sea, and the history of 
this great work, going on for centuries past, is one of 
most remarkable interest. 

There is a great wall in China a thousand miles 
long. Just think of it; one-eighth of the distance 
through this great world of ours, this wall stretches I 
The wall is wide enough for two carriages to pass each 
other in driving along its top. The foundation of the 
wall is of solid granite, the remainder of well-laid 
masonry. The wall is carried from point to point in 
a perfectly straight line across valleys and plains, and 
over hills. Brooks and small rivers are bridged over 
by the wall, while larger rivers have towers on both 
banks. This immense wall was built to protect China 
from her enemies. The wall has several thousand 
towers, used as watch-towers by the Chinese in times 
of danger. To-day this wall is utterly useless. 



WONDERS OF ART. . 67 1 

The Alhambra, of Spain, is one of the most re- 
markable structures ever reared by the hand of man. 
For nearly eight hundred years the Moors held pos- 
session of the fairest parts of Spain, and in the city of 
Granada, their ancient capital, this wonderful palace 
was built. The outer walls, or fortification, were thirty 
feet in height and six feet in thickness. The area 
enclosed in these walls is very extensive. It is said, in 
its palmy days, to have afforded accommodation to 
forty thousand soldiers alone. The palace proper was 
built in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and all 
the beauty and ingenuity of Arabic art were lavished 
upon its construction. It is said that the walls still 
remain unaltered by the ravages of time, except in un- 
important parts ; and the color of the paintings in 
which there is no mixture of oil, on removing the par- 
ticles of dust, appear to have preserved their bright- 
ness. The beams and woodwork of the ceiling 
present no signs of decay. The art of rendering 
timber and paints durable, and of making porcelain 
mosaics, arabesques, and other ornaments, began and 
ended in western Europe with the Moorish conquerors 
of Spain. 

The remains of the palace of the Alhambra consist 
of entrance-arches, corridors, and courts, constructed 
chiefly of marble, and richly adorned with arabesques. 
The Arabs were forbidden by their religion to use the 
representation of living figures or animals in their 
ornamental devices, which therefore took the shape of 
flowers and geometrical forms, sometimes very fanci- 
ful in. their nature. The term arabesque was applied 



672 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH 

to this class of ornament, after the race by which it 
was chiefly used. These arabesque ornaments were 
cast in moulds, and joined with such extreme nicety 
that frequently no trace of the point of junction can 
be detected. They were colored in blue, red and 
gold, and the general effect in such edifices as the 
Alhambra is so gorgeous that it cannot be realized by 
description. 

The many courts and corridors of the Alhambra 
were very elaborately decorated, the saloon known as 
the Hall of Abencerages, with its beautiful stalactite 
roof, being composed of five thousand separate pieces 
fitting into each other with the greatest exactitude. 
The hall takes its name from a Moorish family, the 
last members of which were treacherously murdered 
in this chamber. A mark, said to have been left by 
their blood, is pdinted out upon the marble floor; but 
skeptical people in later times have declared that it is 
nothing but the deposit of water impregnated with 
iron. 

There are many ways of doing things now which 
would be marvellous to the ancients or even to our 
forefathers. We have become so accustomed of see- 
ing these things we make no note of them, but accept 
them as matters of course. We see the ponderous 
locomotive rolling along on the roads without any appar- 
ent traction and. scarcely heed it, except to give it a 
wide berth, for it is remorseless in its pathway. And 
yet when we consider it is a natural power which is 
utilized, merely the expansion of water under the 
influence of heat, we are lost in admiration at the 



WONDERS OF ART. 673 

ingenuity of man in devising ways by which this prop- 
erty of water, familiar since the world began, should 
be made to do his work. As wonderful as the steam 
engine is, it is yet surpassed by the telegraph. 

Not alone the instrument, which is merely a 
mechanical contrivance to give sounds by which words 
are denoted, but still more wonderful are the properties 
of electricity under constraint. Everybody since the 
days of Noah is familiar with lightning, the untamed 
but not untamable artillery of heaven. 

It is a faithful servant, not in the least captious, but 
demands its laws and will follow them. It travels in 
circuits. The circle must be unbroken, or it gets 
angry and explodes with a detonation in proportion to 
the size of the spark or the distance it has to traverse to 
regain its route. This quality secured it as a servant 
of man, a faithful, humble, obliging servant, as swift in 
the performance of duties as Ariel was to the bidding 
of Prospero, but far more untiring. 

For instance, the assassination of Gen. Garfield took 
place in Washington at half past nine a.m. Saturday. 
At nine o'clock it was know to everybody in Nash- 
ville, as the time of this place is forty minutes in 
advance of Washington time, and this gave ten minutes 
to get off the dispatch and circulate it here. Nor is 
this the most wonderful part of the story. It was 
known in San Francisco at six o'clock, or three and a 
half hours before it took place. This is still not all, 
for by twelve o'clock it was published in every capital 
city on the face of the globe. Think of this one 
moment, and see if it can be conceived. 

43 



674 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

Electricity annihilates both time and space. It 
travels around the earth by the time you can wink. 
At the beginning of the present century it would have 
taken six months, or possibly longer to be dissemin- 
ated to the same extent it had reached in an hour on 
that day. The people of Paris, London, St. Peters- 
burg, Constantinople, Athens, Cairo, Jerusalem, Cal- 
cutta, Botany Bay, Pekin, Yeddo in Japan, all collecting 
in knots and talking about it, before his wife, only a 
few miles off, could reach his bedside. Isn't this mar- 
vellous ? 

Prometheus scaled the divine heights of Olympus 
and stole the fire from Jove with which to give life 
to the first man. Verily Prometheus still lives and is 
rapidly stealing the secrets of nature and disseminat- 
ing them among mankind. Let us hope he will fare 
better than his prototype of old for his daring ingenuity. 

One of the most interesting objects offered to pub- 
lic inspection at the Sidney International Exhibition 
was a dwelling-house exclusively made of paper, and 
furnished throughout with articles manufactured from 
the same material. Walls, roof, floorings and stair- 
cases alike, consisted of cartonpierre. The carpets 
and curtains, bedsteads, lamps, sheets and counter- 
panes, towels, bootjacks, baths, kitchen utensils, etc., 
were one and all preparations of papier-mache, as 
were the very stoves used for heating the rooms, in 
which large fires were kept burning throughout the 
duration of the exhibition. Several banquets were 
given in the paper house by its owners to the commis- 
sioners, members of the press, and foreigners of dis- 



WONDERS OF ART. 675 

tinction. All the plates and dishes, knives and forks, 
bottles and drinking vessels used at these entertain- 
ments, were fabricated entirely and solely of paper. 
Should these paper buildings come into vogue, they 
may be expected to superinduce some striking changes 
in the rates of fire insurance, at present calculated 
upon a basis of bricks and mortar. 

A novel use for glass has been found, and so far it 
answers well — viz., as ties for railway lines. Soon after 
Dela Besle introduced his method of toughening glass, 
Mr. F. Seimens, of Dresden, commenced a series of 
researches which have culminated at present in the 
production of a very hard glass, which, unlike the ma- 
terial produced by the Dela Besle method, does not fly 
into a million fragments when broken. The ties which 
have been tested on the North Metropolitan line, at 
Stafford, England, are three feet long and four inches 
wide by six inches deep, the upper side being made to 
fit the rails. The glass sleepers are not so strong as 
those cut from the sound pine, but they are practically 
indestructible, and what is more, are cheap. 

The Japanese make a very curious and handsome 
kind of copper by casting it under water, the metal 
being highly heated, and the water also being hot. 
The result is a beautiful rose-colored tint, which is 
not affected by exposure to the atmosphere. 

The oldest printed book in the world is the Mazarin 
Bible. It is so called because a copy of it was found 
in the library of that celebrated French statesman, 
Mazarin, in Paris, about the middle of the last century. 
It was beautifullv printed in Latin ; and when offered 



676 WELL-SrRINGS OF TRUTH. 

for sale not a human being, except the artists them- 
selves, could tell how the work had been done. The 
printing had been finished as early as 1455, and the 
binding and illuminating were completed at Mentz in 
1456. 

It was in two volumes, and there were about twenty- 
copies, eighteen of which are to be found, ten being in 
private libraries in England. Some of these Bibles 
are printed upon vellum, a very fine kind of parch- 
ment, some on paper of choice quality, with black and 
tolerably handsome letters. 

Of this book Hallam, the historian, thus writes : 

" In imagination we may see this venerable and 
splendid volume leading up the crowded myriads of 
of its followers, aud imploring, as it were, a blessing 
on the new art by dedicating its first fruits to the 
service of heaven." 

A copy of this Bible was sold a few years ago for 
twenty-five hundred dollars. 

In a recent biography of Sir Edwin Landseer, an 
instance is related of his amazing mastery of hand. 
At a party in London some one remarked that there 
was one thing nobody had ever done, and that was to 
draw two things at once. " Oh, I can do that," said 
Landseer, "lend me two pencils." The pencils and 
paper were brought, and Sir Edwin drew, simultane- 
ously and without hesitation, with one hand the profile 
of a stag's head, with all its antlers complete, and with 
the other hand the perfect profile of a horse's head. 
Both drawings are said to have been executed with 
remarkable beauty and force. 



WORDS. 677 



Gentle words are marks of the true gentleman. 

Use gentle words, for who can tell 

The blessings they impart ? 
How oft they fall (as manna fell) 

On some nigh-fainting heart. 

In lonely wilds, by light- winged birds, 

Rare seeds have oft been sown ; 
And hope has sprung from gentle words, 

Where only griefs had grown. 

Never is the deep, strong voice of man, or the low, 
sweet voice of woman, firmer than in the earnest but 
mellow tones of speech, richer than the richest music, 
which are a delight while they are heard, which linger 
still upon the ear in softened echoes, and which, when 
they have ceased, come long after back to memory like 
the murmurs of a distant hymn. Oh, it is very pleas- 
ant to listen to such voices, accordant with lofty con- 
ceptions and sweet humanities, — the soul breathings 
that now swell with daring imaginations, and then sink 
into the gentleness of sadness or of pity. I have 
heard such voices, voices that were music from the 
soul and to it — the very melody of thought, and of 
thought that was the very soul of goodness. Beautiful 
conceptions sang along the syllables, beautiful feelings 
came trickling from the heart in liquid tones. Very 
pleasant are such voices — pleasant on the fragrant air 
of a summer's evening, pleasant by the fire on a win- 
ter's night, pleasant in the palace, pleasant in the 
shanty, pleasant while they last, pleasant to remember 



678 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

even with sorrow, when they are silent, when their 
melody shall never, never again attune and sweeten 
the common air of earth. 

Talking is the best of all recreations, and a master 
of the art possesses the most useful and enjoyable of 
accomplishments. Conversation is designed to be 
the one long-lasting, never-failing amusement of man- 
kind. It is the pleasure that sets in earliest, outlives 
all vicissitudes, and continues ours when we can enjoy 
nothing else. 

Conversation warms the mind, enlivens the imagi- 
nation, and is continually starting fresh game that is 
immediately pursued and taken, and which would never 
have occurred in the duller intercourse of epistolary 
correspondence. 

The cheerful converse of a friend will often tend, 
more than anything else, to soothe, exhilarate and ex- 
pand the heart, and impart an elasticity to the spirit 
and a vigor to the vital current beyond all the skill of 
the physician. 

There are words which sever hearts more than 
sharp swords ; there are words, the point of which sting 
the heart through the course of a whole life. 

Words are often everywhere as the minute-hands 
of the soul, more important than even the hour-hands 
of action. Words, like glass, darken whatever they 
do not help us to see. 

Douglas Jerrold says : " The last word is the most 
dangerous of infernal machines, and husband and wife 
should no more fight to get it than they would strug- 
gle for the possession of a lighted bomb-shell." 



WORDS. 679 

If we have nothing to speak to edification, how much 
better to hold our tongue! Clothe not thy language 
either with obscurity or affectation; in the one thou 
discoverest too much darkness, in the other too much 
lightness. He that speaks from the understanding to 
the understanding is the best interpreter. A word 
once uttered cannot be recalled. Many a friendship 
has been broken and a hope blasted by a thoughtless 
word. While the gift of conversation proves a clever 
man, the want of it is no proof of a dull one. It is a 
pure heart that makes the tongue impressive. Gentle 
words cost very little and yet they accomplish great 
results. They are more powerful than armed hosts 
engaged in mortal conflict on the open field of battle. 

Ah ! a single word, how its echo rings through the 
earth. The proverb has well said, " Words fitly spoken 
are like apples of gold in pictures of silver," — a word 
of counsel to the erring, a word of kindness to the 
stranger, a word of sympathy to the sorrowing, a word 
of love to all. But a word of folly, how its memory 
haunts us! A word has carried death to the soul, 
crushed young hope struggling into existence, smoth- 
ered affection in its infancy, severed from us friend and 
lover. How often we hear ringing in our ears the sad 
refrain, "It might have been !" How often, alas ! we 
are forced to exclaim, " Pshaw ! pshaw ! what a fool I 
was, what a fool!" 

How sweet, how delicious and agreeable to our 
ears are kind words. Their very sound is heavenly 
manna upon which souls may feed. Delightful and 
melodious they steal in our hearts in such a fascinating 



680 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRyTH. 

way that we are powerless to force them back from 
whence they come. They never cause us to feel 
unhappy, but they ever come as a sweet messenger to 
cheer and encourage us in the hour of trials and dis- 
appointment when the dark clouds of adversity, with 
portentous lowerings, have swept away every vestige 
of hope and expectation. 

O the power on the hardest heart of a kind word I 
And it costs so little. True, there may be a few speci- 
mens of humanity of such a nature that you can never 
get from them more than a grunt or a growl — men 
who complain of everything and are always as blue as 
indigo, as bitter as gall. But most men and women 
have souls and hearts, too, which will respond to your 
touch. 

But for hard words, unkind, cruel words, words 
that wound and rankle, and stay to irritate and annoy,, 
untruthful words, swollen out of proportion, great harsh 
adjectives that sound loudly but are not just, wise or 
good — these are idle words that go before us to 
judgment. 

An idle word may be seemingly harmless in its 
utterance ; but let it be fanned by passion, let it be fed 
with the fuel of misconception, of evil intention, of pre- 
judice, and it will soon grow into a sweeping fire that 
will melt the chains of human friendship, that will burn 
to ashes many cherished hopes and blacken more fair 
names than one. 

Better than gold oftentimes is a word fitly spoken. 
Up and down this world go many fainting discour- 
aged ones. It may be your father, pressed down by 



WORDS. 68 1 

a weight of responsibility. It may be the little mother, 
coping with daily difficulties large for such frail hands. 
It may be the elder brother, struggling unaided to 
launch his lifeboat; or, mayhap, some one you only 
meet occasionally. But the world is full of those to 
whom the right kind of a word — one wisely chosen 
and propelled by kind motives — would be of greater 
use than gold. To many of us, gold is beyond reach; 
but where is there one who cannot speak a helpful 
word? 

Samuel Johnson once wrote to a friend, "Your 
former conversation has made me think repeatedly 
what a number of beautiful words there are of which 
we never think of estimating the value, as there are of 
blessings. How carelessly, for example, do we (not 
we, but people) say : "I am delighted to hear from you." 
No other language has this beautiful expression, which, 
like some of the most lovely flowers, loses its charms 
for want of close inspection. When I consider the 
deep sense of these very simple and very common 
words, I seem to hear a voice coming from afar through 
the air, breathed forth and intrusted to the care of the 
elements for the nurture of my sympathy." 

" Talk is cheap," is the old truism. There is more 
of preaching than practice. It is easier to make pro- 
fession of righteousness than to work it. It is a very 
common thing to hear men talk of the things that are 
true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report, but 
not so common to see these virtues illustrated in daily 
walk and conversation. 

Words cost but little, and they too often mean but 



682 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

little and amount to little. But this is not the worst 
of it. If words do little good, they may do much 
harm. The blasting, blighting, cursing influence of 
words hastily or unadvisedly spoken, has been too 
often illustrated to need more than a passing notice ; 
but the thought cannot be too deeply impressed that 
our words may be falling like healing leaves or rays 
of light upon those about us, carrying peace and 
blessing with them, or they may be as poisoned arrows, 
whose festering wounds shall work misery and death 
long after the lips that sent them forth shall have 
ceased their utterances. 

Among the many evils which prevail under the sun, 
the abuse of words is not the least considerable. By 
the influence of time, and the perversion of fashion, 
the plainest and most unequivocal may be so altered 
as to have a meaning assigned them almost diametri- 
cally opposite to their original signification. 

Ninety-nine out of every hundred Northerners will 
say " institoot " instead of institute, " dooty " for duty 
— a perfect rhyme to the word beauty. They will call 
new and news, " noo " and " noos," and so on through 
the dozens and hundreds of similar words. Not a 
dictionary in the English language authorizes this. In 
student and stupid the "u " has the same sound as in 
cupid, and should not be pronounced "stoodent" or 
"stoopid," as so many teachers are in the habit of 
sounding them. If it is a vulgarism to call a door a 
"doah," as we all admit, isn't it as much of a vulgarism 
to call a newspaper a "noospaper?" One vulgarism 
is Northern and the other Southern, that is the only 



WORDS. 68$ 

difference. When the London " Punch " wishes to 
burlesque the pronunciation of servants, it makes 
them call the duke the "dooke," the tutor the "tooter," 
and a tube a "toob." You never find the best 
Northern speakers, such as Wendell Phillips, George 
William Curtis, Emerson, Holmes, and men of that 
class, saying " noo " for new, " Toosday " for Tuesday, 
4, avenoo " for avenue, or calling a dupe a "doop." 

Nature never indulges in exclamations — never 
says ah! or alas! She is a plain writer, uses few ges- 
tures, does not add to her verbs, uses few adverbs, 
uses no expletives. 

There is a vast difference in the use of words, or 
their mode of combination, between the Western 
nations and the Eastern, or Oriental. The romances, 
poetry and novels of Europeans and Americans must 
keep within the limits of some kind of probability, 
although they are pictures of what might have been 
true, rather than truth itself. But Arabian stories, as 
in the "Arabian Nights," keep not within any such 
bounds. A tale which does not astonish, surprise and 
confound, and which does not set at defiance all sober 
calculation and rational theory, is with that imaginative 
people dull, lifeless, and unworthy of notice. All the 
East partakes of this inflated taste. 



684 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 



G^AJPOI^Y. 

Where thoughts kindle, words spontaneously flow. 

The true ideal of oratory, like that of painting and sculpture, is only attain- 
able through culture. — Prof. Reed. 

The qualities that make a great orator are thus 
stated by Wendell Phillips : "A man may be a stam- 
merer and yet a great orator, a man may have a poor 
voice and yet be a great orator, a man may speak in- 
correctly and ungrammatically and still be a very 
great orator; all that is needed is to have an earnest 
cause thoroughly at heart, and have heart and cause 
so truly wedded that they are one with his innermost 
nature, so that when he speaks he pours out his own 
self, exalted by that with which he is filled." 

When the Roman people had listened to the dif- 
fuse and polished discourses of Cicero, they departed, 
saying one to another, " What a splendid speech our 
orator has made!" But when the Athenians heard 
Demosthenes, he so filled them with the subject-matter 
of his oration, that they quite forgot the orator, and 
left him at the finish of his harangue, breathing 
revenge, and exclaiming, " Let us go and fight against 
Philip!" 

The more an idea is developed, the more concise 
becomes its expression : the more a tree is pruned, 
the better is the fruit. Oratory, like the drama, 
abhors lengthiness ; like the drama, it must be kept 
doing. It avoids, as frigid, prolonged metaphysical 
soliloquy. Beauties themselves, if they delay or dis- 



ORATORY. 685 

tract the effect which should be produced on the 
audience, become blemishes. Luther tells us " the 
fewer words the better prayer," and Charles Buxton 
says, " concentration alone conquers." 

Theodore Parker said in substance that eloquence 
is to a man what beauty is to a woman. It is the music 
of speech, the charm of utterance, the graceful and 
fervent expression of thought, the vocalization of ideas 
and emotions. The eloquence of John Bright was 
developed on the temperance platform. The mar- 
vellous command of humor and pathos shown by John 
B. Gough was first displayed in his advocacy of total 
abstinence. Wendell Phillips, the heroic and erratic 
champion of reform, flowered into fame in the " old 
Cradle of Liberty" when be rebuked the aristocracy 
of Boston for shutting its eyes to the shameful murder 
of Lovejoy. 

There never is true eloquence except when great 
principles and sentiments have entered into the sub- 
stance of the soul. Rear stronger minds and they 
will lift up the race to sublimer heights of dignity and 
power. The lives of men should be filled with beauty 
even as t'he earth and heavens are clothed with it. 

The eloquence of the pulpit should be pre-emin- 
ently the eloquence of elevated thought, uttered 
through that various structure of discourse and style 
of expression in which a versatile mind will convey 
such thought. It should be the eloquence of real life, 
and of great occasion. It should be the eloquence of 
manly purpose in great exigencies. In its best forms 
it will resemble, and yet surpass, the best eloquence 



686 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

of senates, in the emergencies of nations. The true 
preacher can be known by this, that he deals out to 
his people his life — life passed through the fire of 
thought. 

On the other hand it has been asserted — and our 
experience proves its truth — that the wisest and most 
cultured men have many thoughts for which they can 
find no adequate expression. The best songs have 
not been sung, except in meek and lowly hearts, by 
inaudible voices, and to the minstrelsy of unseen harps. 
The noblest thoughts that stir man's heart cannot find 
utterance. 

Dwight L. Moody, when he applied for admission 
into the Mount Vernon Congregational church of 
Boston, was on account of his unsatisfactory state- 
ments of experience, refused. Waiting almost a year, 
he presented himself again ; this time he was received. 
Soon after, attending a church prayer-meeting, he 
arose and spoke briefly. At the close of the service 
the pastor took him aside, and kindly told him that he 
had better not attempt to speak in meetings, but that 
he might serve God more acceptably in some other 
way. But this young man, whom this people were so 
loath to hear, was yet to be listened to, on both sides 
of the Atlantic, by such crowds as have seldom been 
attracted by any man since the days of Wesley and 
Whitefield. 

A great orator was once applied to for the rules of 
oratory. He said the first rule was " action;" the sec- 
ond rule was "action;" the third rule was "action;" 
thus intimating that hard work and complete mastery 



ORATORY. 687 

of the subject he desired to speak about, was the ulti- 
matum. It is said that Demosthenes both stammered 
and lisped, and when he first attempted to address an 
audience, they drowned his voice with their jeers. He 
retired to the sea-shore, and there practiced speaking; 
in the roar of the surf, and with pebbles in his mouth. 
Disraeli was hooted at when he first attempted to 
speak in Parliament, but was afterwards acknowledged 
as a great orator, and the leader of the English nation. 

Henry Clay once said : " I owe my success in life 
to a single fact, namely, at the age of twenty-seven I 
commenced and continued for years the practice of 
daily reading and speaking upon the contents of some 
historical or scientific book. These offhand efforts 
were made sometimes in a cornfield, at others in the 
forest, and not unfrequently in some distant barn, with 
the horse and ox for my auditors. It is to this early 
practice in the great art of all arts that I am indebted 
for the primary and leading impulses that stimulated 
me forward and shaped and moulded my entire subse- 
quent destiny." 

Henry Clay thus advises young men who are am- 
bitious to become orators: "Let not a day pass with- 
out exercising your powers of speech. There is no 
power like that of oratory. Caesar controlled men by 
exciting their fears; Cicero, by captivating their affec- 
tions and swaying their passions. The influence of 
the one perished with its x author ; that of the other 
continues to this day." 

Here is a striking description of a great statesman 
and orator: " He had all the requisites of an orator, a 



688 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

commanding figure, striking countenance, most pene- 
trating eye, thorough self-possession, a voice flexible 
and sonorous, and a tongue voluble to a degree almost 
unprecedented ; he had the faculty of pouring out at 
will copious citations from Scripture." 

The following is a description of Mr. Gladstone 
while making one of his great speeches before Parlia- 
ment. He is doubtless the greatest living orator: 
" One recognized at once, by his mere expression and 
motion, that he was already warm and proud with the 
ardor of forensic conflict ; that he loved this arena on 
which he stood, and that his whole soul was in the task 
before him. In his first few simple sentences one 
already felt the sweet and persuasive power of a voice 
which, even in his age, has perhaps no equal in any 
assembly on earth. There was the soul and life of 
intense earnestness in its very first tones, as the com- 
monplace opening of the speech was uttered ; now 
subdued, to be sure, but soon to burn out and glow 
with all the fire of the man's warm, intellectual nature. 

" The next thing observed was the contrast between 
this smooth, steady flow of words, this rising fluency 
of language, pouring out long and involved sentences 
without a pause, a hitch, an instant's loss of the right 
word, and the halting and hesitating oratory of most 
English public men. After listening to the stammering 
of Lord John Russell, the hemming and hawing of the 
genial Palmerston, and the studied abruptness of Dis- 
raeli, this rapid, steady, limpid quality of Mr. Glad- 
stone's eloquence was charming. To his wonderful 
fluency, the flexibility and strength as well as sweet- 



ORATORY. 689 

ness of his voice added striking effect; for it has 
depth, volume, and wide range of tone, and quickly 
adapts itself to the rhetorical need of the moment. 

" His giant intellect, strength of character, and purity 
of life make him a favorite among the noble-minded in 
all the nations of the earth. Though his noble brow, 
over which hoary locks are falling, is wrinkled with 
age, he is full of life, eloquence, and prompt activity. 
His Christian faith and personal efforts for the eternal 
happiness of men crown this gifted statesman with 
peculiar honor. 

" The opening deceived you somehow into the idea 
that the flow of the harangue would be sweet and 
serene throughout. But before Mr. Gladstone had 
been speaking fifteen minutes he seemed, as Sydney 
Smith said of Webster, ' a steam engine in trowsers.' 
No orator was ever more susceptible to the warming- 
up process, caused by the very act of speaking, than 
he. No orator ever became more wrapt, more ab- 
sorbed in the task before him. You felt profoundly 
that he was speaking from the most firmly-rooted con- 
victions ; that the cause he advocated was buried deep 
in his heart, and was the outcome alike of conscience 
and intellectual self-persuasion. The dominant idea 
with him was, not to make a great display, not to pro- 
duce a refined and polished-off bit of eloquence, but 
to persuade and to convince. He produced that pow- 
erful effect upon his hearers which is one of the highest 
triumphs of oratory, that made you feel ashamed and 
perverse not to agree with him and be persuaded." 

Robert Hall was considered the greatest orator in 

44 



69O WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

the English pulpit, and, like Spurgeon, was a Baptist. 
The following description of one of his sermons is 
very vivid: " He looked more like a dead man than 
a living one. With slow and mechanical utterance he 
began. Without motion or gesture, save a feeble, 
occasional movement of the right hand, he went on. 
He first described, as only he could, the glories of the 
natural heavens, and exalted God as the "Father" of 
all these lights. He then called a graphic roll of the 
world's intellectual masters. God was also the Father 
of mental greatness. And he dwelt on moral and 
spiritual greatness, and traced it all to God. 

" As he proceeded, a wonderful change came over 
his face. The flabbiness passed away from his cheeks, 
and the heaviness out of his eyes. His face shone 
like an angel's, his eye blazed with unnatural brilliance, 
and his voice, losing the huskiness with which he 
began, rang like a trumpet. A great change also 
came over the audience. As he went on from picture 
to picture, and poured out on that audience, accus- 
tomed indeed to eloquence, but now astonished, his 
wonderful wealth of word and thought, the people 
leaned forward in their seats hardly daring to breathe, 
and finally fully one-third of them, unconscious of what 
they were doing, rose up and leaned towards the pulpit 
as far as they could reach. Many left their pews, and 
with unconscious steps silently, stealthily crept down 
the aisles, until they found themselves standing en- 
tranced directly in front of the speaker, so irresistible 
was the magnet that drew them. 

"When the sermon was over, the giant disease 



ORATORY. 69 1 

again claimed its victim, the eyes sunk and the face 
fell. He was again the feeble, dying man. But during 
that glorious hour, when ' great thoughts struck along 
the brain,' the mind was supreme. It spurned weak- 
ness and death, and claimed its birthright." 

Gen. Mitchell, the great astronomer, who died at 
the South during the late war, closed one of his lec- 
tures as follows : 

" Light traverses space at the rate of a million 
miles a minute, yet the light from the nearest star re- 
quires ten years to reach the earth, and Herschel's 
great telescope revealed stars two thousand three 
hundred times further distant. The great telescope 
of Lord Rosse pursued these creations of God still 
deeper into space, and having resolved the nebulae of 
the Milky Way into stars, discovered other systems of 
stars — beautiful diamond points glittering in the black 
darkness beyond. When he beheld this amazing 
abyss — when he saw these systems scattered profusely 
throughout space — when he reflected upon their im- 
mense distance, their enormous magnitude, and the 
countless millions of worlds that belonged to them, it 
seemed to him as though the wild dream of the Ger- 
man poet was more than realized. 

"God called man in his dream into the vestibule of 
heaven, saying: 'Come hither, and I will show thee 
the glory of my house.' And to His angels who stood 
about His throne be said, 'Take him, strip him of his 
robes of flesh; cleanse him of his affections; put a new 
breath into his nostrils, but touch not the human 
heart,' — the heart that fears, that hopes, and trembles. 



692 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

A moment, and it was done; and the man stood ready 
for his unknown voyage. Under the guidance of a 
mighty angel, with sounds of the flying pinions, they 
sped away from the battlements of Heaven. Some 
time, on the mighty angel's wings, they fled through 
Saharas of darkness — wildernesses of death. At length, 
from a distance not counted save in the arithmetic of 
Heaven, a light beamed upon them — a sleepy flame, 
as seen through a hazy cloud. In a moment, the 
blazing suns around them — a moment, and the wheel- 
ing of planets; then came long eternities of twilight; 
then, again, on the right hand and the left appeared 
more constellations. 

"At last the man sank down, crying: 'Angel, I can 
go no further; let me lie down in the grave, and hide 
myself from the infinitude of the universe, for end 
there is none ! ' ' End there is none ! ' demanded the 
angel. And ' from the glittering stars that shone 
around there came a choral shout, ' End there is none! 
End there is none ! ■ ' " 



©HE ^OWEI^ OP (QUSIG. 

4 

" Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie." — Milton. 

Music hath its charms the savage breast to soothe, 
and there breathes not a human being so dead to the 
pure and holy instincts implanted by God himself that 
he does not grow kinder and more gentle under its 
soothing strains. 






THE POWER OF MUSIC. 693 

The harsh cares of life often blunt our better 
natures and make us cold and selfish. But the sweet 
song of a little child, trilling forth the praise of 
"Blessed Jesus," will thrill the soul and turn the whole 
channel of our thoughts and emotions in a new and 
heavenly direction. Even the wandering beggar with 
his hand-organ upon the streets, when it breaks forth 
with a " Sweet Bye and Bye " beneath our office win- 
dows, will turn our thoughts back upon the pleasant 
evenings we spent with a loved one, when we sang that 
song, and little dreamed of the bitter bye and bye, 
when we should be left to walk this gloomy earth 
alone, while she passed on to that better land in ful- 
fillment of the beautiful prophecy of the song. 

The power of music is attested in the universal 
attention commanded by a beautiful singer. Genin, 
the hatter, paid two hundred and twenty-five dollars to 
hear Jenny Lind sing, and many a man has parted 
with his hard-earned dollars in the gambling hell and 
dance hall under the witchery of " Home, Sweet 
Home." The delirium of joy experienced when, after 
months of lonely work upon the mountain side, the 
poor miner hears the loved cradle songs in the gilded 
palace of sin, can only be realized by those who have 
witnessed such scenes. 

Who can tell the priceless value of beautiful hymns 
sung by the little child in the nursery, by the sailor on 
the mighty ocean, by the lone negro woman in her 
cabin on the Florida shore, and by the bedside of the 
sick and dying. They are almost a religion in them- 
selves, they are full of words of love, of holy faith and 



694 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

holy teaching, and they cannot but elevate and purify 
the heart and life, and from my inmost soul I bless 
God for the gift of beautiful hymns. 

Learn to use your voices, boys ; it will often help 
you over a stiff bit of work to sing, and true gladness 
is infectious, for a " merry heart doeth good like medi- 
cine." An officer lay on the field of Shiloh, fatally 
wounded by a gunshot. A multitude of others, help- 
less like himself, were stretched on the ground around 
him, but none so near that he could easily converse. 
He felt himself alone — but with God — and this made 
him almost forget his pain and thirst, and the sadness 
of his dying thoughts of home and friends never to 
be seen by him again. Another home rose before 
him in the twilight of eternity — the place prepared by 
the Sufferer of Calvary for "His loved and His own"; 
and as he lay there under the stars, the vision of it 
brightened as he drew nearer to it, and he began to 
sing: 

When I can read my title clear 

To mansions in the skies, 
I'll bid farewell to every fear 

And wipe my weeping eyes. 

Instantly another wounded man under the bushes 
not far away took up the strain, and beyond him an- 
other and another, and the suffering and dying all 
around began to sing, till the dark battle-field rang 
that night with the melody of faith and hope. 

We all can set our daily deeds to the music of a 
grateful heart, and seek to round our lives into a hymn 
— the melody of which will be recognized by all who 
come in contact with us, and the power of which shall 



THE POWER OF MUSIC. 695 

not be evanescent, like the voice of the singer, but 
perennial, like the music of the spheres. 

Music is the harmonious voice of creation ; an echo 
of the invisible world ; one note of the divine concord 
which the entire universe is destined one day to sound. 
The deeper tones that lie in the silences of nature will 
be all inaudible, unless the ear be overhearing at the 
same time the deep music of the heart. 

On board the ill-fated steamer Seawanhaka was 
one of the Fisk University singers. Before leaving the 
burning steamer and committing himself to the merci- 
less waves he carefully fastened upon himself and wife 
life-preservers. Some one cruelly dragged away that 
of the wife, leaving her without hope, except as she 
could cling to her husband. This she did, placing her 
hands firmly on his shoulders and resting there until 
her strength becoming exhausted, she said, "I can hold 
on no longer ! " " Try a little longer," was the 
response of the wearied and agonized husband, "let 
us sing 'Rock of Ages." And as the sweet strains 
•floated over those troubled waters reaching the ears of 
the sinking and dying, little did they know, those 
sweet singers of Israel, whom they comforted. 

But lo ! as they sang, one after another of those 
exhausted ones were seen raising their heads above 
the overwhelming waves, joining with a last effort in 
this sweet, dying, pleading prayer: 

Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in Thee. 

With the song seemed to come strength ; another and 
yet another was encouraged to renewed effort. Soon 



696 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

in the distance a boat was seen approaching ! Singing" 
still, they tried, and soon with superhuman strength 
laid hold of the life -boat, upon which they were borne 
in safety to land. This is no fiction ; it was related by 
the singer himself, who said he " believed Toplady's 
sweet 'Rock of Ages' saved many another besides 
himself and wife." 

Many of the wild animals are said to be fond of 
and even charmed by music ; the hunters of the Tyrol 
and some parts of Germany often entice stags by 
singing, and the female deer by playing the flute. 
Beavers and rats have been taught to dance the rope, 
keeping time to music. 

Among reptiles, the lizard shows, perhaps, the 
most remarkable susceptibility to musical influences ; 
lying first on his back, and then on his side, and anon 
on his belly, as if desiring to expose every part of his 
body to the effect of the sonorous fluid which is so 
delightful to him. He appears to be very refined in 
his taste ; soft voices and plaintive airs being his 
favorites, while hoarse singing and noisy music disgust 
him. 

Among the insects, spiders are found to be very 
fond of music; as soon as the sounds reach them, they 
descend along their web to the point nearest to that 
from which the music originates, and there remain 
motionless as long as it continues. Prisoners some- 
times tame them by singing or whistling, and make 
companions of them. 

But perhaps the most remarkable influence of 
music on animals occurred at a menagerie in Paris, a 



THE POWER OF MUSIC. 697 

few years ago, when a concert was given, and two 
elephants were among the auditors. The orchestra 
being placed out of their sight, they could not perceive 
whence the harmony came. The first sensation was 
that of surprise; at one moment they gazed eagerly at 
the spectators ; the next they ran at their keeper to 
caress him, and seemed to enquire what these strange 
sounds meant; but, at length, perceiving that nothing 
was amiss, they gave themselves up to the impressions 
which the music communicated. Each new tune 
seemed to produce a change of feeling, causing their 
gestures and cries to assume an expression in accord- 
ance with it. But it was still more remarkable that 
after a piece had produced an agreeable effect upon 
them, if it was incorrectly played they would remain 
cold and unmoved. 

Properly used, sacred song may be made a most 
powerful educator. There ought to be soul in song, 
as well as sound. There ought to be thought in song, 
as well as vibration. Sounds may be agreeable even 
to an idiot ; but only words with thought in them give 
pleasure to the intellect. The patriotic sentiment ex- 
cited by "The Marseillaise," or "The Star-Spangled 
Banner," arises not so much from the music, as from 
the words. Even when we hear the tune only, our 
excitement can be traced to the spinal thought which 
we associate with the music. 

Song is a power in patriotism, temperance, missions, 
politics, parlor companionship and street development. 
It is a power in religion — not the power of sweet 
melody, but the power of evangelical truth. It is the 



698 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

function of music to charm the senses, and thus secure 
a ready welcome to a truth which, coming alone, would 
be debarred an entrance. There is a degradation of 
music which reduces it to a Sunday pastime, or uses it 
as a piece of stuffing to fill a gap in a prayer meeting. 
Every hymn is supposed to contain at least a morsel 
of heavenly bread. The problem should be, how to 
get that morsel into the spiritual stomach. The sing- 
ing fails of its true end if it is nothing but singing, 
with no instruction and no arousing. Perhaps there is 
too much singing in our Sunday schools, merely for 
the sake of singing. Perhaps it may be said of a 
great deal of our singing, that it does no harm, while 
it relieves the tedium of a dry service. But why may 
not every hymn be sung for the sake of the truth in it, 
and the passing pleasure be made entirely subordinate 
to the permanent instruction ? 



Cggenji^igities of Genius. 

How common it is to speak of a strong man's ec- 
centricities, or of his peculiar faults, as if they were the 
source of his power. Even the boorishness and in- 
civility and ill nature of a man, or his overweening 
vanity, or his violent and ungoverned temper, and his 
selfish disregard of the feelings and the rights of 
•others, are sometimes spoken of as elements of strength 
in him. Yet it is invariably true that such a man has 
made all his progress and gained all his power in spite 



ECCENTRICITIES OF GENIUS. 699 

of these faults, and not in consequence of them. If he 
were without these drawbacks, or if he held them 
in control, he would be more of a man, and do a better 
work, than now. 

A recent writer on Bismarck has thus emphasized 
this truth: " In judging a hero there are two facts to 
be borne in mind. First, it is not his objectionable, 
but his good qualities that have enabled him to play a 
great part. Otherwise it were necessary to despair of 
humanity. Secondly, where the faults are conspicuous 
the redeeming virtues must be of no ordinary kind. 
Some French writers have lately been trying to destroy 
the fame of Napoleon. The attempt is sufficiently puerile, 
but the Lanfreys and others do prove the conqueror 
of Europe to have been a person of many vices. Only, 
they fail to understand that by this process they raise 
the man to a rather loftier eminence than he previously 
occupied. For what must have been the genius which 
so triumphed over flaws of mind and heart that its 
possessor not only ruled a continent, but won the love 
aud homage of millions ? " 

If you are conscious of any peculiar faults which 
are recognized and tolerated by your friends, do not 
nurse them, or even give them tolerance yourself, in 
the mistaken notion that they are elements of your 
strength and attractiveness. You are doing all that 
you do of good, and holding all the friends you still 
retain, in spite of those faults ; and you would do a 
great deal better and have more to love you if you 
conquered them. And if you see the evident faults 
of one who is widely recognized as a strong man or 



yOO WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

as a good one, and who attaches many to him, be sure 
that he has positive good qualities overbalancing those 
poor ones. 

Mr. Spurgeon recently delivered an address upon 
"Eccentric Preachers," at the annual tea and public 
meeting of the friends and patrons of the Tabernacle 
College. He first defined what it was to be eccentric. 
Eccentricity, as generally regarded, is simply a differ- 
ing from some one else, especially some one who 
sets himself up, or is set up by others as a standard of 
propriety. "One charge of eccentricity," Mr. Spur- 
geon said, "brought against Whitefield and Wesley 
was that they actually wore their own hair instead of 
wearing wigs. Could anything be more monstrous ? 
A holy person from Holland wrote to him, and said he 
had read his sermons with pleasure, but could do so 
no longer, as he now found that he was a carnal and 
worldly man, who wore a moustache." 

Some men are eccentric because they are essen- 
tially truthful and in dead earnest in what they say. 
Earnest men cannot always be proper. And again 
preachers had been considered eccentric because they 
have a vast amount of dramatic energy in them. 
Such men meant to save men's souls, and resolved to 
do anything and everything to accomplish it. He 
gave instances in illustration, and from his point of 
view, we come to the conclusion that eccentricity in a 
preacher is not so bad a thing after all, but generally 
a most valuable quality. 

When we see so many accomplished wits of the 
present age, as remarkable for the decorum of their > 



ECCENTRICITIES OF GENIUS. 70I 

lives as for the brilliancy of their writings, we may 
believe that next to principle it is owing to their good 
sense which regulates'and chastises their imaginations. 
The vast conceptions which enable a true genius to 
ascend the sublimest heights may be so connected 
with the stronger passions as to give it a natural ten- 
dency to fly off from the straight line of regularity, till 
good sense, acting on the fancy, makes it gravitate 
powerfully towards that virtue which is its proper 
center. 

Add to this, when it is considered with what imper- 
fection the Divine Wisdom has thought fit to stamp 
everything human, it will be found that excellence and 
infirmity are so inseparably wound up in each other 
that a man derives the soreness of temper and irrita- 
bility of nerve which make him uneasy to others and 
unhappy to himself from those exquisite feelings, and 
that elevated pitch of thought by which, as the Apostle 
expresses it on a more serious occasion, he is, as it 
were, out of the body. 

It is not astonishing, therefore, when the spirit is 
carried away by the magnificence of its own ideas, 

"Not touch'd, but rapt; not waken'd, but inspir'd," 

that the frail body, which is the natural victim of pain, 
disease and death, should not always be able to follow 
the mind in its noblest aspirations, but should be as 
imperfect as if it belonged only to an ordinary soul. 

Great geniuses appear to cherish the fond delusion 
that their powers must remain at the meridian and be 
susceptible to no decline or decay. Few, indeed, have 



702 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

been those who possessed that self-abnegating wis- 
dom which perceives when the mental powers have 
attained the exact zenith in the broad concavity of 
thorough development. Irving was one of these, and 
his last work was his greatest ; but the great majority 
of the famous, blinded by vanity or thoughtlessness, 
refuse to relinquish the pen until even the memory of 
their former greatness can procure from them nothing 
more than the contemptuous toleration of pity. The 
most sorrowful of sights is a Titan shorn of his 
strength, and while hurling pebbles, calling them the 
tremendous rocks with which he once did battle with 
the gods. 

The author of " Home, Sweet Home," J. H. Payne, 
a poor but genial-hearted man, was walking with a 
friend in London, and, pointing to one of the most 
aristocratic houses in Mayfield, he said: "Under those 
windows I composed the song of 'Home, Sweet 
Home,' as I wandered about without food, or a sem- 
blance of shelter I could call my own. Many a night 
since I wrote these words, that issued out of my heart 
by absolute want of a home, have I passed and re- 
passed in this locality, and heard a stern voice coming 
from within those gilded walls, in the depth of a dim, 
cold London winter, warbling 'Home, Sweet Home,' 
while I, the author of them, knew no bed to call my 
own. 

"I have been in the heart of Paris, Berlin, London, 
or some other city, and have heard people singing 
1 Home, Sweet Home,' without a penny to buy the 
next meal, or a place to put my head in. The world 



TRUE CHIVALRY. 703, 

has literally sung my song until every heart is familiar 
with its melody. My country has turned me ruthlessly 
from office, and in my old age I have to submit to hu- 
miliation for bread." It is hinted by those who ought 
to know, that " the genial-hearted man's " improvi- 
dence caused his family no slight trouble and expense* 



(Sl^UE (gHIYALI^Y. 



He is a gentleman who does gentle deeds. 

The truly brave are soft of heart and eyes. — Byron. 

To a gentleman every woman is a lady in right of her sex. — Bulwer-Lytton* 

Those who have shone in all ages as the lights of 
the world; the most celebrated names that are recorded 
in the annals of fame; legislators, the founders of 
states, and the fathers of their country, on whom suc- 
ceeding ages have looked back with filial reverence ; 
patriots, the guardians of the laws, who have stemmed 
the torrent of corruption in every age; heroes, the 
saviours of their country, who have returned victorious 
from the field of battle, or, more than victorious, who 
have died for their country ; philosophers, who have 
opened the book of nature and explained the wonders 
of almighty power ; bards, who have sung the praises 
of virtue and of virtuous men, whose strains carry 
them down to immortality, — with a few exceptions, 
have been uniformly on the side of goodness, and 
have been as such distinguished in the temple of fame. 



704 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

It was one of the maxims which governed their lives, 
that there is nothing in nature which can compensate 
wickedness ; that although the rewards and punish- 
ments which influence illiberal and ungenerous minds 
were set aside; that although the thunders of the 
Almighty were hushed, and the gates of paradise were 
open no more, they would follow religion and virtue 
for their own sake, and co-operate with eternal Provi- 
dence in perpetual endeavors to favor the good, to 
depress the bad, and to promote the happiness of the 
whole creation. 

To redress wrongs, to protect the weak, to honor 
woman, to be faithful to his leader, and never to turn 
his back upon foe — these were the chosen duties of 
the knight, and his great aim was to make himself 
brave, faithful, true and stainless. I never could be- 
lieve that Providence had sent a few men into the 
world, ready booted and spurred to ride, and millions 
ready saddled and bridled to be ridden. When a 
people shall learn that its greatest benefactors and 
most important members are men devoted to the liberal 
instruction of all its classes, to the work of raising to 
life its buried intellect, it will have opened to itself the 
path of true glory. 

Men of guinea stamp are much more the coinage 
of heaven than of earth. And happy indeed for man- 
kind if the truth were universally recognized that the 
mind, the heart, the soul, and not high birth and great 
fortune, are the true standards of man. The thing that 
ennobles is virtue and virtuous endeavors, either for 
ourselves or others, and the thing that degrades is not 



TRUE CHIVALRY. 705 

lowly condition or the humble and unambitious toil, but 
indolence and vice. 

People glorify all sorts of bravery except the 
bravery they might show on behalf of their nearest 
neighbors. If you intend to do a mean thing, wait till 
to-morrow. If you are to do a noble thing, do it now. 
A bare coffin without a flower, and a funeral without a 
eulogy, are preferable to a life without love and sym- 
pathy. 

A Chinese honey-merchant, by the name of Shai- 
King-qua, had long known an English trader named 
Anderson, and had large transactions with him. Mr. 
Anderson failed in business through heavy losses, and 
at the time owed his Chinese friend eighty thousand 
dollars. Wishing to come to England to retrieve his 
affairs, he called on the merchant and explained his 
hopes and situation. The Chinaman listened with 
anxious attention, and then said, " My friend Anderson, 
you have been very unfortunate; you lose all ; I very 
sorry you go to England ; but that you no forget 
Chinaman friend, take this, and remember Shai-King- 
qua." So saying, he held out a valuable gold watch 
and gave it to his friend. 

Mr. Anderson did not live to retrieve his affairs or 
return to China. When the account of his death and 
the distress in which he left his family reached Canton, 
the honey merchant called on one of the gentlemen of 
the factory who was about to return to Europe, and 
thus addressed him : "Poor Mr. Anderson dead ! I 
very sorry. He good man — he friend — and he leave 
two children — they poor, they have nothing — they 



yo6 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

child of my friend ; you take this for them, tell them 
Chinaman friend send it." And he put a sum of 
money into his hand amounting to several hundred 
pounds. 

Compassion is an emotion of which we ought 
never to be ashamed. Graceful, particularly in youth, 
is the tear of sympathy, and the heart that melts at the 
tale of woe. 

Samuel Smiles says : " It is a grand old name, that 
of gentleman, and has been recognized as a rank and 
power in all stages of society. To possess this char- 
acter is a dignity of itself, commanding the instinctive 
homage of every generous mind, and those who will 
not bow to titular rank will yet do homage to the gen- 
tleman. His qualities depend not upon fashion or 
manners, but upon moral worth ; not on personal 
possessions, but on personal qualities. The Psalmist 
briefly describes him as one 'that walketh uprightly, 
and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in 
his heart.' " 

Ruskin tells us, " A gentleman's first characteristic 
is that fineness of structure in the body which renders 
it capable of the most delicate sensation ; and of struc- 
ture in the mind which renders it capable of the most 
delicate sympathies ; one may say, simply, ' fineness of 
nature.' This is of course compatible with heroic 
bodily strength and mental firmness ; in fact, heroic 
strength is not conceivable without such delicacy." 

It is related of the great Lord Lawrence, that dur- 
ing the conduct of some important case for a young 
Indian Rajah, the prince endeavored to place in his 



TRUE CHIVALRY. 707 

hands, under the table, a bag of rupees. "Young 
man," said Lawrence, "you have offered to an English- 
man the greatest insult which he could possibly receive. 
This time, in consideration of your youth, I excuse it. 
Let me warn you, by this experience, never again to 
commit so gross an offense against an English gentle- 
man." 

Brave and honest men do not work for gold. They 
work for love, for honor, for character. When Socrates 
suffered death rather than abandon his views of right 
morality, when Las Casas endeavored to mitigate the 
tortures of the poor Indians, they had no thought of 
money or country. They worked for the elevation of all 
that thought, and for the relief of all that suffered. 

Said a recent lecturer upon Masonry: "Every 
emblem teaches us as brothers, to lay down all feel- 
ings of ill-will or distrust towards a brother, when we 
enter the door of the lodge, and then forget to take 
them up again as we go out." Surely every instinct 
of chivalry teaches us all to do this in the world as 
well as in the lodge room. 

It is related by travelers in Spain, that a custom 
prevails there which is the very cream of chivalrous 
action., When a stranger stops at a restaurant for his 
dinner, he will be likely to find that his bill has been 
paid, when he calls for it, by some native gentleman, 
who, perceiving the stranger, takes this mode of ex- 
pressing his good will and hospitable desires. 

Charles Lamb says : " In comparing modern with 
ancient manners, we are pleased to compliment our- 
selves upon the point of gallantry, — a certain obse- 



708 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

quiousness or deferential respect which we are sup- 
posed to pay to females as females. 

" I shall be disposed to admit this when, in polite 
circles, I shall see the same attentions paid to age as 
to youth, to homely features as to handsome, to coarse 
complexions as to clear ; to the woman as she is a 
woman, not as she is a beauty, a fortune or a title. I 
shall believe it to be something more than a name 
when a well-dressed gentleman in a well-dressed com- 
pany can advert to the topic of female old age without 
exciting and intending to excite a sneer; when the 
phrases, 'antiquated virginity,' and such a one has 
' overstood her market,' pronounced in good com- 
pany, shall raise immediate offense in man or woman 
that shall hear them spoken." 

In no country, whether of ancient or modern times, 
have women had less to complain of in their treatment 
by man, than in America. This is no rhetorical de- 
clamation ; it is the simple statement of an undenia- 
ble fact. It is a matter of social history. Since the 
days of early colonial life to the present hour such has 
been the general course of things in this country. The 
hardest tasks have been taken by man, and a gener- 
ous tenderness has been shown to women in many of 
the details of social life, pervading all classes of society, 
to a degree beyond what is customary even in the 
most civilized countries of Europe. 

The best husbands I ever met came out of a family 
where the mother, a most heroic and self-denying 
woman, laid down the absolute law, " Girls first." Not 
in any authority, but first to be thought of as to pro- 



PATRIOTISM. 709 

tection and tenderness. Consequently the chivalrous 
care which these lads were taught to show to their own 
sisters naturally extended itself to all women. They 
grew up true gentlemen — generous, unexacting, cour- 
teous of speech and kind of heart. In them was the 
protecting strength of manhood, which scorns to use 
its strength except for protection ; the proud honesty 
of manhood which infinitely prefers being lovingly and 
openly resisted to being twisted round one's finger as 
mean men are twisted, and mean women will always 
be found ready to do it, but which, I think, all honest 
men and brave women would not merely dislike, but 
utterly despise. 

Bajprichpism. 

If we would see the foundations laid broadly and 
deeply on which the fabric of this country's liberties 
shall rest to the remotest generations; if we would see 
her carry forward the work of political reformation, 
and rise the bright and morning star of freedom over 
a benighted world, let us elevate the intellectual and 
moral characters of every class of our citizens, and 
especially let us imbue them thoroughly with the prin- 
ciples of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Goethe says : " In peace, patriotism really consists 
only in this — that every one sweeps before his own 
door, minds his own business, also learns his own les- 
son, that it may be well with him in his own house." 
We naturally associate the word with the idea of war, 



7IO WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

but the truest patriotism and the noblest, is developed 
in times of peace, and is shown in heroic endeavors 
to prevent war and promote the welfare of the 
nation. 

If I wished to raise up a race of statesmen, higher 
than politicians, animated not by greed or selfishness, 
by policy or party, I would familiarize the boys of the 
land with the characters of the Bible, with Joseph and 
Moses, Joshua and Samuel, Daniel and Paul — and I 
would teach them the gentle wisdom of Jesus Christ. 

As true patriots, our object should be our country, 
our whole country, and nothing but our country. And, 
by the blessing of God, may that country itself become 
a vast and splendid monument, not of oppression and 
terror, but of wisdom, of peace, and of liberty, upon 
which the world may gaze with admiration forever! 
Of the whole sum of human life no small part is that 
which consists of a man's relations to his country, and 
his feelings concerning it. 

When the patriot leaves his native land, he ever 
feels to say, with Mary Queen of Scots: 

" Farewell, dear land, farewell to thee, 
The loved, the cherished home to me ; 
A theme of joy, a dream that's o'er — 
Farewell, dear land, farewell to thee." 

We entirely believe that a republican government 
in a Christian land may be the highest, the noblest, 
and the happiest that the world has yet seen. Still 
we do not believe in magic ; and we do not believe in 
idolatry. We Americans are just as much given to 
idolatry as any other people. Our idols may differ 
from those of other nations ; but they are, not the less, 



PATRIOTISM. 711 

still idols. And it strikes the writer that the ballot- 
box is rapidly becoming an object of idolatry with us. 

From the vote alone we expect protection against 
all things evil. The vote is expected by its very touch, 
suddenly and instantaneously, to produce miraculous 
changes ; it is expected to make the foolish wise, the 
ignorant knowing, the weak strong, the fraudulent 
honest. It is expected to turn dross to gold. It is 
held to be the great educator, not only as regards 
races, but individuals and classes of men, and that in 
the twinkling of an eye, with magical rapidity. 

Were this theory practically sound the vote would 
really prove a talisman. In that case we should give 
ourselves no rest until the vote were instantly placed 
in the hands of every Chinaman landing in California, 
and of every Indian roving over the plains. But are 
all voters wise ? Are all voters honest ? Are all 
voters enlightened ? Are all voters faithful servants 
of their country? Alas! we know only too well that 
when a man is not already honest, and just, and wise, 
and enlightened, the vote he holds cannot make him so. 

It is very clear that the ballot-box needs to be 
closely guarded on one side by common sense, on the 
other by honesty; and the angel of patriotism must 
hover over all with her holy fire to light the being who 
casts his franchise in that sacred receptacle. A man 
must be endowed with a certain amount of education 
and of principle, before he receives the vote, to fit him 
for a worthy use of it. 

Yet there are men who have refused to be bought, 
in all times and ages. Even the poorest, inspired by 



712 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

duty, have refused to sell themselves for money. 
Among the North American Indians a wish for wealth 
is considered unworthy of a brave man, so that the 
chief is often the poorest of his tribe. The best bene- 
factors of the race have been poor men, among the 
Israelities, among the Greeks, and among the Romans. 
Elisha was at the plow when called to be a prophet, 
and Cincinnatus was in his fields when called to lead 
the armies of Rome. Socrates and Epaminondas were 
among the poorest men in Greece. Such, too, were 
the Galilean fishermen, the inspired founders of our 
faith. 

Aristides was called "The Just" from his unbending 
integrity. His sense of justice was spotless, and his 
self-denial unimpeachable. He fought at Marathon, 
at Salamis, and commanded at the battle of Platea. 
Though he had borne the highest offices in the state, 
he died poor. Nothing could buy him; nothing could 
induce him to swerve from his duty. It is said that 
the Athenians became more virtuous from contemplat- 
ing his bright example. In the representation of one 
of the tragedies of yEschylus, a sentence was uttered 
in favor of moral goodness, on which the eyes of the 
audience turned involuntarily from the actor to Aris- 
tides. 

Phocion, the Athenian general, a man of great 
bravery and foresight, was surnamed "The Good." 
Alexander the Great, when overrunning Greece, en- 
deavored to win him from his loyalty. He offered 
him riches, and the choice of four cities in Asia. The 
answer of Phocion bespoke the spotless character of 



PATRIOTISM. 713 

the man. "If Alexander really esteems me," he said, 
" let him leave me my honesty." 

Yet Demosthenes, the eloquent, could be bought. 
When Harpalus, one of Alexander's chiefs, came to 
Athens, the orators had an eye upon his gold. De- 
mosthenes was one of them. What is eloquence with- 
out honesty? On his visit to Harpalus, the chief 
perceived that Demosthenes was much pleased with 
one of the king's beautifully-engraved cups. He de- 
sired him to take it in his hand that he might feel its 
weight. " How much might it bring?" asked Demos- 
thenes. " It will bring you twenty talents," replied 
Harpalus. That night the cup was sent to Demos- 
thenes, with twenty talents in it. The present was not 
refused. The circumstance led to the disgrace of the 
orator, and he soon after poisoned himself. 

Cicero, on the other hand, refused all presents from 
friends, as well as from the enemies of his country. 
Some time after his assassination, Caesar found one of 
his grandsons with a book of Cicero's in his hands. 
The boy endeavored to hide it, but Caesar took it from 
him. After having run over it, he returned it to the 
boy, saying, " My dear child, this was an eloquent 
man, and a lover of his country." 

My heart grows faint with longing, and I am fairly- 
homesick at times to hear the grand old tunes of my 
boyhood days, when the whole land was marshaled 
into patriotic bands, and the " Tramp, tramp, my boys," 
resounded from hillside, valley and plain. " Brave 
boys are they, gone at their country's call," brings 
forth the silent tear as memory wanders back to the 



7H WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

loved ones who went but never returned. "There 
will be one vacant chair" has long since been realized, 
and but for Time, the healer of all wounds, the realiza- 
tion would be past all endurance. The friend at my 
elbow begins to hum " For Dixie's land we'll take our 
stand," as his thoughts go back over the same period ; 
and now his eyes flash, his lips quiver, and he breathes 
forth, 

" She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb, — 
Huzza ! she spurns the Northern scum ! 
She breathes — she burns ! She'll come, she'll come, 
Maryland ! My Maryland ! " 

His heart is aglow with the old ardor which called 
forth the defiant cheer of the brave patriot. 

The finest displays of power, — such as those 
which delineate Prometheus blessing mankind and 
defying the thunder of Jove, even when fastened to 
the barren rock with the vulture tugging at his heart, — 
what are they but the principles which have animated 
men who have struck for freedom, braving the dungeon, 
the stake and the scaffold in their enthusiasm for lib- 
erty and their determination to emancipate themselves 
and their fellow-creatures ? 

Neither Montaigne in writing his essays, nor Des- 
cartes in building new worlds, nor Burnet in framing 
an antediluvian earth ; no, nor Newton in discovering 
and establishing the true laws of nature on experiment 
and a sublime geometry, felt more intellectual joys 
than he feels who is a real patriot, who bends all the 
force of his understanding and directs all his thoughts 
and actions to the good of his country. 



MODESTY. 715 



(QODESIFY. 

Piety is a kind of modesty. It makes us turn aside our thoughts, as modesty 
makes us cast down our eyes in the presence of whatever is forbidden. — Joubert. 

The most effective coquetry is innocence. 

Humility is an element of success. Pride makes 
a man overrate himself and leads him to undertake 
what he cannot perforin. But humility, a true modesty 
before God and man, teaches him to wait patiently 
until success comes in ligitimate ways. 

People with great genius are seldom of most use 
in the world, for they are flattered by their friends into 
a selfish spirit, that inspires an overweening self-con- 
fidence, and over-reaching spirit which always leads to 
defeat. Modesty comes soonest and surest to the 
humble and unattractive. Modesty is not at all incon- 
sistent with dignity, self-respect and proper self-con- 
fidence. Modesty is the balance-wheel to hold the 
strong man to a conservative life. Mere bashfulness 
without merit is awkward; and merit without modesty 
is insolent. But modest merit has a double claim to 
acceptance. Modesty is to merit as shades to figures 
in a picture, giving it strength and beauty. 

I have observed that under the notion of modesty 
men have indulged themselves in a spiritless sheep- 
ishness, and been forever lost to themselves, their fami- 
lies, their friends, and their country. When a man 
has taken care to pretend to nothing but what he may 
justly aim at and can execute as well as any other, 



71 6 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

without injustice to any other, it is ever want of breed- 
ing or courage to be browbeaten or elbowed out of 
his honest ambition. I have said often that modesty 
must be an act of the will, and yet it always implies 
self-denial; for if a man has an ardent desire to do 
what is laudable for him to perform, and from an 
unmanly bashfulness shrinks away, and lets his merit 
languish in silence, he ought not to be angry at the 
world that a more unskillful actor succeeds in his part, 
because he has not confidence to come upon the stage 
himself. 

When a man has a particularly empty head, he 
generally sets up for a great judge, especially in reli- 
gion. None so wise as the man who knows nothing. 
His ignorance is the mother of his impudence and the 
nurse of his obstinacy ; and though he does not know 
B from a bull's foot, he settles matters as if all wisdom 
were in his fingers' ends — the Pope himself is not 
more infallible. Hear him talk after he has been at 
meeting and heard a sermon, and you will know how 
to pull a good man to pieces, if you never knew it 
before. He sees faults where there are none, and if 
there be a few things amiss, he makes every mouse 
into an elephant. Although you might put all his wit 
into an egg-shell, he weighs the sermon in the balances 
of his conceit, with all the airs of a bred-and-born 
Solomon, and if it be up to his standard, he lays on his 
praise with a trowel ; but if it be not to his taste, he 
growls and barks and snaps at it like a dog at a 
hedgehog. 

Wise men in this world are like trees in a hedge, 



MODESTY. 7 1 7 

there is only here and there one ; and when these 
rare men talk together upon a discourse, it is good for 
the ears to hear them; but the bragging wiseacres I 
am speaking of are vainly puffed up by their fleshly 
minds, and their quibbling is as senseless as the cackle 
of geese on a common. Nothing comes out of a sack 
but what was in it, and as their bag is empty, they 
shake nothing but wind out of it. It is very likely that 
neither ministers nor their sermons are perfect — the 
best garden may have a few weeds in it, the cleanest 
corn may have some chaff — but cavillers cavil at any- 
thing or nothing, and find fault for the sake of showing 
off their deep knowledge; sooner than let their tongues 
have a holiday, they would complain that the grass is 
not a nice shade of blue, and say that the sky would 
have looked neater if it had been whitewashed. 

Oh the vain pride of mere intellectual ability! how 
worthless, how contemptible when contrasted with the 
riches of the heart! What is the understanding, or the 
hard, dry capacity of the brain and body ? A mere 
dead skeleton of opinions, a few dry bones tied up 
together, if there be not a soul to add moisture and 
life, substance and reality, truth and joy. Every one 
will remember the modest saying of Newton — perhaps 
the greatest man who ever lived — the discoverer of the 
method of Fluxions, the theory of universal gravitation 
and the decomposition of light — that he felt himself but 
as a child playing by the seashore, while the immense 
ocean of truth lay all unexplored before him ! Have 
we any philosophers who will make such a confession 
now? 



7l8 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

A modest person seldom fails to gain the goodwill 
of those he converses with, because nobody envies a 
man who does not appear to be pleased with himself. 
Modesty is silent when it would be improper to speak; 
the humble, without being called upon, never recollects 
to say anything of himself. 

Everything without tells the individual that he is 
nothing; everything within persuades him that he is 
everything. Modesty is the chastity of merit, the vir- 
ginity of noble souls. Modesty and the dew love the 
shade. Each shine in the open day only to be exhaled 
to heaven. The first of all virtues is innocence ; the 
next is modesty. If we banish modesty out of the 
world, she carries away with her half the virtue that is 
in it. Nothing can atone for the want of modesty, 
without which beauty is ungraceful and wit detesta- 
ble. 

Dr. Johnson says: " Modesty in a man is never to 
be allowed as a good quality, but a weakness, if it 
suppresses his virtue, and hides it from the world, 
when he has at the same time a mind to exert himself." 
The humble soul is like the violet, which grows low, 
hangs the head downwards, and hides itself with its 
own leaves; and were it not that the fragrant smell of 
his many graces discovered him to the world, he would 
choose to live and die in secrecy. 

No humility is perfect and proportioned but that 
which makes us hate ourselves as corrupt, but respect 
ourselves as immortal ; the humility that kneels in the 
dust but gazes on the skies. He that loves God until 
he fears nothing is the typical Christian, the ideal 



MODESTY. 7T9 

man, and out of him proceeds all kindness, all truth, 
all love, all faith, all self-respect, all needful restraint, 
all things that go to make him a full man, moving in 
the ranks of society naturally and easily. Liberty is 
one of the signs of Christianity. 

Baxter declares : " You little know what you have 
done when you have first broke the bounds of mod- 
esty; you have set open the door of your fancy to the 
devil, so that he can, almost at his pleasure, ever after 
represent the same sinful pleasure to you anew ; he 
hath now* access to your fancy to stir up lustful 
thoughts and desires, so that when you should think 
of your calling, or of your God, or of your soul, your 
thoughts will be worse than swinish, upon the filth 
that is not fit to be named. If the devil here get in a 
foot, he will not easily be got out." 

Modesty is the ground on which all a woman's 
charms appear to the best advantage. In manners, 
dress and conversation, remember always that mod- 
esty must never be forgotten. There is now-a-days a 
tendency in woman to rebel against old-fashioned 
modesty. The doctrine of liberty is spreading among 
us, for which I thank* God. But the first effects of that 
doctrine on our minds are a little confusing. We are 
growing more independent and more individual. Some 
of us fancy that to be modest is to be old-fashioned, 
and, of course, we want the newest fashions in all 
things. " I maintain that a modest woman is the reply 
of my sex to a brave man — you can no more have a 
true woman without modesty than a true man without 
courage. But remember, I use the word modesty in a 



720 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

high sense. Not prudery. Prudery is on the sur- 
face ; modesty is in the soul. Rosalind in her boy's 
suit is delightfully modest, but not very prudish." 

The following advice, from the sermon of a Jewish 
rabbi, is directed to young ladies previous to mar- 
riage, during the progress of courtship : 

" Let me admonish you of the behavior becoming 
this relationship. The sweetheart relationship anti- 
cipates marriage, whether as yet it has progressed to 
engagement or not. In view of this, we would remind 
you that you should in all respects bear yourself in 
such a way as to win the respect and confidence of the 
man you expect to call your husband. Many a foolish 
girl, in the intimacy of the sweetheart relationship, has 
utterly lost the confidence of the man who had come to 
admire her, although he himself may have been most 
at fault. No man of self-respect and pride of character 
will be willing to marry the woman in whom he has 
not entire confidence. She who is not unapproachably 
modest as a sweetheart, will be justly liable to sus- 
picion as a wife. 

" If young ladies knew how almost every im- 
modesty they suffer comes to light and is made the 
subject of gossip and of jest, it would make them care- 
ful, even if their native self-respect and pride of char- 
acter were not sufficient. Perhaps marriage does not 
take place between you and the man who makes you 
the subject of his attentions. I am sorry to say that 
men are not always as manly as they ought to be in 
regard to such matters, and oftentimes make mention 
of them to their companions, and thus everybody 



MANLY BEAUTY. 72 1 

comes to know of them. But, even if the gentleman 
should be more discreet than that, it may turn out that 
he at length marries some other person, and^some 
time or other, when your name is mentioned between 
them, he tells his wife what he knows about you. Then 
she — in confidence, of course — mentions the matter to 
some other lady friend; and so the information be- 
comes public property. 

" It is a pleasant thing for a man to reflect, how- 
ever loose his morals may be, that she who is now his 
wife never, in all their courtship, permitted the slightest 
indelicacy." 

Nothing is more amiable than true modesty, and 
nothing more contemptible than that which is false; 
the one guards virtue, the other betrays it. True 
modesty is ashamed to do anything that is repugnant 
to right reason ; false modesty is ashamed to do any- 
thing that is opposite to the humor of those with whom 
the party converses. True modesty avoids everything 
that is criminal ; false modesty everything that is un- 
fashionable. The latter is only a general, undeter- 
mined instinct : the former is that instinct limited and 
circumscribed by the rules of prudence. 

CQanly Bbauwy. 

Beauty is God's handwriting, a wayside sacrament. — Milton. 

With what admiration are we filled at beholding a 
noble, earnest man. The manly man, whose every 
feature betokens the brave spirit within, arouses our 

46 



722 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

warmest sympathy, and even though he be a stranger,, 
we wish him God-speed. Then, if this manliness and 
nobility of bearing, this evident, kindliness of heart 
and gentility of manner, be joined to a noble frame, 
and he stands forth with a handsome face and com- 
manding figure, we are ready to acknowledge the 
natural born leader. This is our highest type of manly 
beauty. 

Beauty depends more upon the movement of the 
face than upon the form of the features when at rest. 
Thus a countenance habitually under the influence of 
amiable feelings acquires a beauty of the highest order,, 
from the frequency with which such feelings are the 
originating causes of the movement or expressions 
which stamp their character upon it. 

The high and divine beauty which can be loved 
without effeminacy, is that which is found in combina- 
tion with the human will, and never separate. 

The manliest man of all is the one who loves God 
and is kind to all His creatures. This man never fears 
to do right because some one may ridicule him ; he 
never hesitates to say "No," when no is the word to say. 

This manly man was once a manly boy ; then, as. 
now, he scorned to do a mean act, not because it 
would be found out, but because, being what he was, 
he could not do wrong. Some boys cannot do mean 
things ; it is not in them. 

Are you such a boy? or do you go about slyly, 
looking to see if you are observed, and if not — for- 
getting that God's eye is upon you — doing a thousand 
things of which you ought to be ashamed ? 



MANLY BEAUTY. 723 

Not long since two boys were excused from their 
Sunday school class because they were immediately 
needed at home. When the school closed, their 
teacher saw them skulking around the corner to 
escape observation. Such boys will never make manly 
men. 

Who stole those melons, who stoned that stray 
dog, who jeered at that poor old man, who defaces 
buildings and ruins shade trees ? Not the manly boy, 
but the other one ; what shall we call him ? Our peni- 
tentiaries are full of these other boys, grown to be 
men in size, but never manly at heart. Will you be 
one of that number, or will you belong to the class 
who are never found there ? 

Truth is the foundation and the reason of the per- 
fection of beauty; for of whatever stature a thing may 
be, it cannot be beautiful and perfect unless it be truly 
what it should be, and possess truly all that it should 
have. 

Beauty is the mark God sets upon virtue. Every 
natural action is graceful. Every heroic act is also 
decent, and causes the place and the bystanders to 
shine. 

Socrates called beauty a short-lived tyranny ; Plato, 
a privilege of Nature ; Theophrastus, a silent cheat ; 
Theocritus, a delightful prejudice ; Corneades, a soli- 
tary kingdom ; Domitian said that nothing was more 
grateful ; Aristotle affirmed that beauty was better than 
all the letters of recommendation in the world ; Homer, 
that 'twas a glorious gift of Nature ; and Ovid, allud- 
ing to it, calls it a favor bestowed by the gods. 



724 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

When a noble act is done, — perchance in a scene 
of great natural beauty, when Leonidas and his three 
hundred martyrs consume one day in dying, and the 
sun and moon come each and look at them once in the 
steep defile of Thermopylae ; when Arnold Winkelried, 
in the high Alps, under the shadow of the avalanche, 
gathers in his side a sheaf of Austrian spears to break 
the line for his comrades; are not these heroes entitled 
to add the beauty of the scene to the beauty of the 
deed ? When the bark of Columbus nears the shore 
of America, — before it, the beach lined with savages, 
fleeing out of all their huts of cane — the sea behind 
and the purple mountains of the Indian Archipelago 
around, — can we separate the man from the living 
picture ? Does not the New World clothe his form 
with her palm groves and savannahs as fit drapery ? 

In private places, among sordid objects, an act of 
truth or heroism seems at once to draw to itself the 
sky as its temple, the sun as its candle. Beauty 
haunts the depths of the earth and sea, and gleams out 
in the hues of the shell and the precious stone. 

John Ray remarks that there are " no better cosmet- 
ics than a severe temperance and purity, modesty and 
humility, a gracious temper and calmness of spirit ; and 
no true beauty without the signature of these graces 
in the very countenance." 

As amber attracts a straw, so does beauty admira- 
tion, which only lasts while the warmth continues; but 
virtue, wisdom, goodness, and real worth, like the 
lodestone, never loose their power. These are the 
true graces, which, as Homer feigns, are linked and 



MANLY BEAUTY. 725 

tied hand in hand, because it is by their influence that 
human hearts are so firmly united to each other. 

Cicero says: "I am of opinion that there is nothing 
so beautiful but that there is something still more 
beautiful, of which this is the mere image and expres- 
1 sion, — a something which can neither be perceived by 
the eyes, the ears, nor any of the senses ; we compre- 
hend it merely in the imagination." 

There is more or less of pathos in all true beauty. 
The delight it awakens has an indefinable, and, as it 
were, luxurious sadness, which is perhaps one element 
of its might. In ourselves, rather than in material 
nature, lie the true source and life of the beautiful. 
The human soul is the sun which diffuses light on 
every side, investing creation with its lovely hues, and 
calling forth the poetic element that lies hidden in 
every existing thing. 

Nature stretcheth out her arms to embrace man ; 
only let his thoughts be of equal greatness. Willingly 
does she follow his steps with the rose and the violet, 
and bend her lines of grandeur and grace to the deco- 
ration of her darling child. Only let his thoughts 
be of equal scope, and the frame will suit the picture. 
A virtuous man is in unison with her works, and 
makes the central figure of the visible sphere. 



726 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 



050MANLY Ul^JBUES. 

A virtuous woman looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth 
not the bread of idleness. 

Amongst women of breeding the exterior of gen- 
tleness is so uniformly assumed, and the whole manner 
is so perfectly level and tint, that it is next to impos- 
sible for a stranger to know anything of their true dis- 
positions by conversing with them, and even the very 
features are so exactly regulated that physiognomy, 
which may sometimes be trusted among the vulgar, is, 
with the polite, a most lying science. 

A very termagant woman, if she happens also to 
be a very artful one, will be conscious she has so much 
to conceal, that the dread of betraying her real tem- 
per will make her put on an overacted softness, 
which, from its very excess, may be distinguished from 
the natural by a penetrating eye. That gentleness is 
ever liable to be suspected for the counterfeited, which 
is so excessive as to deprive people of the proper use 
of speech and motion, or which, as Hamlet says, 
makes them lisp and amble and nickname God's 
creatures. 

These uniformly smiling and approving ladies, who 
have neither the noble courage to reprehend vice nor 
the generous warmth to bear their honest testimony in 
the cause of virtue, conclude every one to be ill- 
natured who has any penetration, and look upon a 
distinguishing judgment as want of tenderness.- Meek- 
ness, like most other virtues, has certain limits, which 



WOMANLY VIRTUES. 727 

it no sooner exceeds than it becomes criminal. Ser- 
vility of spirit is not gentleness, but weakness, and if 
indulged under the specious appearances it sometimes 
puts on, will lead to the most dangerous compliances. 
She who hears innocence maligned without vindicating 
it, falsehood asserted without contradicting it, or reli- 
gion profaned without resenting it, is not gentle, but 
wicked. 

It is a singular fact that when we reach middle life 
and look back, it is not the beautiful, nor the brilliant, 
nor the famous people whom we have known, that we 
remember with the keenest regret, but some simple, 
sincere, "pleasant" soul, whom we treated as an 
everyday matter while she was with us. 

Go into a family, or a social circle, or even into a 
ball-room, and the woman who has the most friends 
there, as a rule, is not the belle, nor the wit, nor the 
heiress, nor the beauty, but some homely, charming 
little body, whose fine tact and warm heart never allow 
her to say a wrong word in a wrong place. 

The " pleasant women " are the attraction that 
everywhere holds society and homes together. Any 
woman, however poor or ugly, may be one of them ; 
but she must first be candid, honorable, unselfish and 
loving. If she is these, the world will be better and 
happier for every day of her life. 

The life of a woman can never be seen in its out- 
ward form, much less in its inner. But the best prep- 
aration for both is the careful preparation of womanli- 
ness — her natural inheritance. The word is inde- 
finable. It is seen in the weakness, the need to lean 



728 WELL-SrRINGS OF TRUTH. 

upon, to trust, to confide, to reverence, and to serve, 
as much as it is seen in the strength that enables her 
to endure, to protect, to defend, and to support. We 
find it in the plasticity that gives such marvelous 
power of adaptation, as well as in the firmness that 
yields only to duty ; in the gentleness that wins, and 
in the self-devotion that overcomes. 

No trait of character is more valuable in a woman 
than the possession of a sweet temper. Home can 
never be made happy without it. It is like the flowers 
that spring up in our pathway, reviving and cheering 
us. Let a man go home at night, wearied and worn 
out by the toils of the day, and how soothing is a word 
dictated by a good disposition. It is sunshine falling 
upon his heart. He is happy, and the cares of life are 
forgotten. A sweet temper has a soothing influence 
over the minds of a whole family. Where it is found 
in a wife and mother you observe kindness and love 
predominate over the bad feelings of a natural heart. 
Smiles, kind words and looks characterize the children, 
and peace and love have their dwelling there. Study, 
then, to acquire and retain a sweet temper. It is more 
valuable than gold; it captivates more than beauty, 
and to the close of life it retains all its freshness and 
power. 

A recent writer, after describing the qualities which 
ought to characterize a woman's nature, says, " One 
might almost fear, seeing how the women of to-day 
are lightly stirred up to run after some new fashion of 
faith or of works, that heaven is not so near to them as 
it was to their mothers and grandmothers ; that religion 



WOMANLY VIRTUES. 729 

is a feebler power with them ; that their hearts are 
empty of all secure trust and high faith in the bene- 
ficence of God's ordinations." The writer is herself a 
woman. 

Pericles says: " I shall advise you in a few words ; 
aspire only to those virtues that are peculiar to your 
sex ; follow your natural modesty, and think it your 
greatest commendation not to be talked of, one way 
or the other. Besides those important qualities, com- 
mon to both, each sex has its respective, appropriated 
qualifications, which would cease to be meritorious if 
possessed alike and in common. 

" Nature, propriety and custom, have prescribed 
certain bounds, to each; bounds which the prudent and 
the candid will never attempt to break down ; as indeed 
it would be highly impolitic to annihilate distinctions 
from which each acquires excellence, and to attempt 
innovations by which both would be losers." 

It is not lack of intellect on the part of women, but 
difference of intellect, or rather a difference of organi- 
zation and affinities, giving a different bias to the 
intellect, which is the cause of their distinct mental 
character as a sex. 

Woman is not inferior to man, but holds a some- 
what different sphere. She should not seek to be his 
tyrant, or consent to be his slave. Her throne is the 
heart. Her empire the family with its far-reaching 
relationship. As daughter, wife, sister, mother, she 
needs an education as high and broad and varied as 
man's. 



730 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

We quote the following on what to teach our 
daughters : 

" Teach them self-reliance. Teach them to make 
bread ; to make shirts, to foot up store bills, to wear 
thick, warm shoes. Teach them how to wash and 
iron clothes ; how to make their own dresses. Teach 
them that a dollar is only a hundred cents. Teach 
them to cook a good meal of victuals. Teach them 
how to darn stockings and sew on buttons. 

"Teach them every day dry, hard, practical common 
sense. Teach them to say No, and mean it ; or yes, and 
stick to it ; to wear calico dresses and do it like queens. 
Give them a good, substantial common-school educa- 
tion. Teach them that a good, rosy romp is worth 
fifty consumptives. Teach them to regard the morals 
and not the money of their beaux. Teach them all the 
mysteries of the kitchen, the dining-room and the 
parlor ; that the more one lives within his income the 
more he will save. To have nothing to do with intem- 
perate and dissolute young men. 

" Teach them that the further one lives beyond his 
income the nearer he gets to the poor-house. Rely 
on it that upon your teaching depends in a great 
measure the weal or woe of their after-life. Teach 
them that a good steady mechanic is worth a dozen 
loafers in broadcloth. Teach them the accomplish- 
ments, music, painting, drawing, if you have time and 
money to do it with." 

The remark may perhaps be thought too strong, 
but I believe it is true, that next to religious influences 
a habit of study is the most probable preservative of 



WOMANLY VIRTUES. 73 I 

the virtue of young women. Knowledge is not as 
heretofore confined to the dull cloister or the gloomy 
college, but disseminated, to a certain degree, among 
both sexes, and almost all ranks. The only misfortune 
is that these opportunities do not seem to be so wisely 
improved, or turned to so good an account, as might 
be wished. Books of a pernicious, idle and frivolous 
sort are too much multiplied, and it is from the very 
redundancy of these that knowledge is so scarce. 

She who dedicates a portion of her leisure to use- 
ful reading feels her mind in a constant progressive 
state of improvement, whilst the mind of a dissipated 
woman is continually losing ground. An active spirit 
rejoiceth, like the sun, to run his daily course, while 
indolence, like the dial of Ahaz, goes backwards. 

It would be to the last degree presumptuous and 
absurd for a young woman to pretend to give the ton 
to the company ; to interrupt the pleasure of others, 
and her own opportunity of improvement by talking 
when she ought to listen ; or to introduce subjects out 
of the common road in order to show her own wit, or 
expose the want of it in others ; but were the sex to 
be totally silent when any topic of literature happens to 
be discussed in their presence, conversation would lose 
much of its vivacity and society would be robbed of one 
of its most interesting charms. 

The prevailing manners of an age depend more 
than we are aware, or are willing to allow, on the 
conduct of the women; this is one of the principal 
hinges on which the great machine of human society 
turns. Those who allow the influences which female 



732 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

graces have in contributing to polish the manners of 
men, would do well to reflect how great an influence 
female morals must also have on their conduct. 

A close behaviour is the fittest to receive virtue for 
its constant guest, because there, and there only, it 
can be secured. Proper reserves are the outworks, 
and must never be deserted by those who intend to 
keep the place; they keep off the possibilities not only 
of being taken, but of being attempted ; and if a 
woman seeth danger, though at never so remote a dis- 
tance, she is for that time to shorten her line of liberty. 
She who will allow herself to go to the utmost extent 
of everything that is lawful, is so very near going fur- 
ther, that those who lie at watch will begin to count 
upon her. 

There are two kinds of girls ; one is the kind that 
appears best abroad — the girls that are good for par- 
ties, rides, visits, balls, etc., and whose chief delight is 
such things. The other is the kind that appears best 
at home — the girls that are useful and cheerful in the 
dining-room, sick-room, and all the precincts at home. 
They differ widely in character. One is often a tor- 
ment at home — the other a blessing; one is a moth, 
consuming everything about her — the other a sunbeam, 
inspiring light and gladness all around her pathway. 
The right kind of education will modify both, and 
unite their good qualities. 

It does not pay you, girls, to spend your days in 
running about, or poring over foolish stories, when 
the whole beautiful world lies before you. Such a 
course presisted in will find you at the threshold of 



WOMANLY VIRTUES. 733 

womanhood ignorant, purposeless, and weary of living 
— no resources left but idle gossip over the affairs of 
others, and weak complaints concerning your own. 

Give your best sympathy. There is no greater 
human power than the tenderness of women. If you 
can minister to some one in sickness, lessen some- 
body's distress, or put a flower in some poor home, 
you have done a thing you will always be glad to 
think of. You will be remembered, and a woman asks 
no grander monument than to live in hearts. 

Not far from my home was the plain cottage of an 
Irish woman and her only son — a brave young fellow 
dying of consumption contracted in the war. One day, 
on my visit to him, I carried him some lovely red roses. 
The next time I went the mother said : "He never let 
the roses go out of his hand, Miss. He held 'em 
when he died, and the last he ever said was, ' Give my 
blessin' to the young lady for bringin' the flowers.' " 
And the desolate mother buried them with him, as the 
most precious thing he possessed. The blessing of 
that poor Irish youth will always be a pleasant mem- 
ory. 

The remembrance of a tender word will last long 
after you are in your grave. A little ragged boot- 
black fell on the icy streets of Chicago one winter's 
day. A cheery young lady passing, said as she helped 
him up: "Did you hurt you?" His whole face 
beamed as, after her departure, he said to his com- 
panions : " I'd like to fall a dozen times, if I could have 
her speak to me like that." 

Of all the virtues necessary to the completion of 



734 • WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

the perfect woman, there is none to be more delicately 
implied and less ostentatiously vaunted than that of 
exquisite feeling or universal benevolence. If women 
fulfilled truly their divine errand there would be no 
need of reforming societies. It would not be easy, 
even for an unbeliever, to find a better translation of 
the rule of virtue from the abstract into the concrete, 
than to endeavor so to live that Christ would approve 
our life. 

Confucius tells us that, "to be able under all cir- 
cumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect 
virtue ; these five are gravity, generosity of soul, sin- 
cerity, earnestness, and kindness." Virtue is an 
angel ; but she is a blind one, and must ask of Knowl- 
edge to show her the pathway that leads to her goal. 
Mere knowledge, on the other hand, like a Swiss 
mercenary, is ready to combat either in the ranks of sin 
or under the banners of righteousness, — ready to forge 
cannon-balls or to print New Testaments, to navigate 
a corsair's vessel or a missionary ship. 

A handsome woman pleases the eye, but a good 
woman pleases the heart. Thoroughly sweet and full 
of loveliness are pure women. There was never any- 
thing so lovely in air, or on earth, or in all the green 
meadows. God has exalted and ennobled pure women, 
so that one may prize and honor them forevermore. 
The treasure of the world, with all rapture, lies in 
them. Tennyson declares that " Men at most differ as 
heaven and earth, but women, worst and best, as 
heaven and hell." 

Nothing makes a woman more esteemed by the 



WOMANLY VIRTUES. 735 

Qpposite sex than chastity, whether it be that we 
always prize those most who are hardest to come at, 
or that nothing besides chastity, with its collateral 
attendants — truth, fidelity and constancy — gives the 
man a property in the person he loves, and conse- 
quently endears her to him above all things. 

The woman who works in some honorable way to 
maintain herself loses none of the dignity or refine- 
ment of true womanhood, and is just as much, even 
more, an ornament to her sex than the woman whose 
days are passed in luxurious indolence and indulgence. 

The honor of woman is badly guarded when it is 
guarded by keys and spies. No woman is virtuous 
who does not wish to be. Goldsmith declares that 
virtue which requires to be ever guarded is scarce 
worth the sentinel. Modesty is to worth what shadows 
are in a painting ; she gives to it strength and relief. 

Irving has beautifully said: "There is in every true 
woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies 
dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which 
kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour ot 
adversity." No man ever lived a right life who had 
not been chastened by a woman's love, strengthened 
by her courage, and guided by her discretion. 

The poet Shelley says of woman : "She is the most 
delightful of God's creatures — heaven's best gift, man's 
joy and pride in prosperity, man's support and com- 
forter in affliction." 



J2>6 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 



JJosPiteALinnr. 

It is for the children's sake, even more than for 
any one else's, that every home ought to make much 
of the offices of hospitality — ought to make more 
of them than our American homes are apt to. Guests 
are an essential feature in the full equipment of an ideal 
home life. The house in which they are a rarity is 
worse off than one which has no pictures, few books, 
or ill-cooked food. 

Intercourse with guests, especially with such as are 
quite outside the circle of family cousins, can but 
broaden the horizon of the home thought and the range 
of home talk. Next to the benefits which come from 
travel, from mingling with people away from your 
home, in enlarging your views and widening your 
sympathies, you may safely count that which comes 
from intercourse in your own home with those who 
are away from theirs. There is something shriveling 
in the very atmosphere of the family which jogs around, 
day after day, in the small circle of its petty cares, 
familiar interests and monotonous employments, with 
no wider excursions into the large life of the world 
than idle gossip about the nearest neighbors. That 
is the forlornness and the disadvantage of life in sod 
houses on the frontier, or log cabins on the mountains. 

Be the family ever so well off otherwise, it needs 
the frequent coming and going of guests, not only 
to lift table-talk out of the petty topics, but home man- 



HOSPITALITY. Jtf 

ners out of the rudeness into which it is so natural for 
family life to drift. It is not a little thing that the 
presence of a guest at the table checks so much 
comment upon the food, so much cross-firing between 
youngsters, so much slinking by older folks into the 
shell of their own meditations, while it introduces a 
wide range of fresh topics for family thought and con- 
versation. 

But "company" is expensive, it is said, and most of 
us middle-class Americans, who earn our livings in 
shops or offices, live a good deal nearer, anyhow, to 
the verge of our current income than prudent people 
ought to. That may be. The things that are most 
worth having generally cost something. But when we 
once decide that the duties of hospitality as well 
deserve to share in our outgoes as do newspapers, 
church expenses, and many pleasant and helpful things 
that we are not willing to spare, we shall find ways 
and means for them. Most people, though, make the 
mistake of going to needless expense in entertaining 
their visitors. It is a poor compliment to your guest 
to suppose that nothing else will give him so much 
pleasure as a profusion of things good to eat. Your 
delicious salads and flaky pastry are not worth the 
having in the dining-room, dear madam, if their pre- 
paration causes you to wear a weary face all the 
evening in the parlor. 

Every one knows in his own case that it is vastly 
pleasanter to drop into the usual family life of the 
house, where he is a guest — to sit in the family room, 
to keep the family hours, to share in the ordinary 

47 



73% WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

family fare — than to go about with an oppressive con- 
sciousness that everything has been joggled out of its 
course by his arrival. 

I doubt if that man or woman is soundly con- 
verted and transformed into the image of Christ, who 
does not feel the heart swell with this virtue ; and 
desire with all earnestness to " entertain strangers, for 
thereby some have entertained angels unawares." 
What more beautiful and attractive sight does the 
world possess than a lovely Christian home, where this 
grace is a leading characteristic. Where the stranger, 
as well as the friend, is ever made welcome to the best 
the house affords, and no apologies made or needed,, 
because it is not better or more profuse. Give the 
best that you have and with that give love, and good 
will, and cheerfulness, and even though the fare be 
plain, and the bed hard, and the rooms small and 
crowded, yet there will remain in the memory such a 
sweetness as will make one long to come again, and 
will convince all hearts that your invitation is sincere. 
Do not begrudge kindness and attention to your 
guests. Even though they are enemies, show them 
how you forgive them and thus lead them to forgive 
you. And do it all in the name of our Lord. 

Poplicola's doors were opened on the outside, to 
save the people even the common civility of asking 
entrance; where misfortune was a powerful recom- 
mendation, and where want itself was a powerful 
mediator. 

In the charming picture of domestic peace given 
by an anonymous author of the fourteenth century, we 



HOSPITALITY. 739 

find that youths of the noblest houses used to serve at 
table when their fathers entertained their friends. 
There is an emanation from the heart in genuine 
hospitality which cannot be described, but is immedi- 
ately felt, and puts the stranger at once at his ease. 
Hospitality to the better sort, and charity to the poor ; 
two virtues that are never exercised so well as when 
they accompany each other. Hospitality sometimes 
degenerates into profuseness, and ends in madness 
and folly. Breaking through the chills of ceremony 
and selfishness, and thawing every heart into a flow. 

What can there be more noble than the grace of 
hospitality. It has been a leading trait of character in 
all the .good and great of all ages. The Bible enjoins 

it as one of the Christian virtues, and all the old 

• 

patriarchs practiced it. Abraham entertained the three 
foot-sore and weary strangers, ministering to their 
comfort out of the goodness of his kind heart, and 
Lot besought them to turn aside and abide with him, 
not knowing that they were guardian angels sent to 
save him from destruction. Jesus would not suffer 
the multitude to depart, when with weary footsteps, 
they had gathered on the mountain side to listen to 
His blessed words. He entertained them from His 
royal bounty and then directed that the twelve baskets 
full should be gathered up, that other poor and needy 
might also receive the benefit. 

Now a good dinner is an excellent thing. A really 
elegant dinner, well cooked, well served, with tasteful 
accompaniments of every kind, and with a moderate 
number of pleasant people to enjoy it, is a most de- 



74-0 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

lightful thing. It is right that those who can afford it 
should give such, replete with "every delicacy of the 
season;" the best food, the most artistic and beautiful 
table arrangements, and in sufficient quantity to satisfy 
the guests. Sufficient time also should be allowed 
fairly to enjoy the meal ; taking it leisurely, and season- 
ing it with that cheerful conversation which is said to 
help digestion. In truth there cannot be a pleasanter 
sight than an honest, honorable man, at the head of 
his own hospitable board, looking down two lines of 
happy-looking friends, whom he is sincerely glad to 
welcome, and, who are glad in return to give him, ac- 
cording to the stereotyped phrase," the pleasure of 
their company," which really is a pleasure, and without 
which the grandest banquets are weariness inexpres^ 
sible. But the dinner should be subservient to the 
guests, not the guests to the dinner ; and every meal, 
be it simple or splendid, is worthless altogether unless 
eaten, as a good Christian has it, "in gladness and 
singleness of heart." 

If a man does not make new acquaintances. as he 
advances through life, he will soon find himself left 
alone. A man should keep his friendship in constant 
repair, and not neglect old friends at the same time. 

A good many years ago two young men, John 
and James, Boston boys both, were fellow-clerks on 
Kilby street, Boston. John went to Chicago in its 
muddy days, prospered, married, raised a family, and 
ere his head was gray became a well-to-do, substantial 
citizen, open-handed and open-hearted. James re- 
mained at home. He, too, prospered, married, raised 



HOSPITALITY. 74 1 

a family and became one of the " solid men of Boston." 
Now it fell out that when John's eldest son (they 
called him Jack) was twenty-one, he visited Boston, 
bearing a letter to his father's old friend, whom he 
found in a dingy Pearl street counting room, deep in 
The Advertiser. Jack presented the letter, and stood 
hat in hand, while the old gentleman read it twice. 
"So you are John's son ? " said he. " You don't look a 
bit like your father." Then there was a pause, Jack 
still standing. "What brought you to Boston?" he 
asked. 

"Well, sir," said Jack, "father thought I had better 
see his old home, and get a taste of salt air." 

" Going to be here over Sunday ? " 

"Yes, sir." 

" My pew is No. — , at Trinity. Hope to see you 
there. Glad to have met you." And here the inter- 
view ended. 

Now it chanced that, not long after, James' son, 
roving through the West, reached Chicago. He 
remembered his father's friend by name, and hunted 
him up in his office. 

" Well, my son ? " said a pleasant voice before he 
had closed the door. 

" My name is James , sir, and I thought — " 

" Why ! You don't mean to say — . Of course 
you are. I might have known it. Where's your bag- 
gage ? " 

"At the hotel, sir." 

" At the hotel ! We'll go and get it, and take it 
right up to the house," answered the genial old gen- 



74 2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

tleman, closing his desk with a vigorous slam. " We'll 
go right up now. There's plenty of time for a drive 
this afternoon. This evening you can spend in com- 
pany with my girls, and to-morrow you and I will take 
a run out on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 
road, and have a look at the country. Then I want to 
take you out to the stockyards, and have a trip on the 
lake, and — " 

" But, sir," broke in the overwhelmed young man, 
" I must go home to-morrow." 

"Tut, tut, my boy, don't talk that way. You can't 
begin to see this city under a week, and you're going 
to stay that long, anyhow." 

" Strangers!" Oh, it is a sacred word! Be kind 
to them. Their homes may be afar, their hearts may 
be broken, and a kind deed, a kind word to them may 
be like dew to a fainting flower, a flash of heavenly 
light into a dark chamber. 

The cry "On to Richmond ! " awakened no enthu- 
siasm in the hearts of the Third Ohio one day when 
they found themselves en route as prisoners of war 
for that famous capital. Nor were they enthusiastic 
when they halted for the night and prepared to sink 
supperless into dreamland. 

The Fifty-fourth Virginia regiment was encamped 
near by, and some of the men came down to have a 
look at the Yanks. 

"Had your coffee?" asked one, of a blue coat 
stretched disconsolately on the bank. 

"Not a sup," answered the other. 

"Ain't you had any rations to-night?" 



HOSPITALITY. 743 

" Only a crumb or two from the bottom of our 
haversacks." 

This was told to the boys of the Fifty-fourth, and 
old Virginia hospitality showed itself at once. The 
men soon made their appearance with coffee-kettles, 
corn-bread and bacon, the best they had. In a few 
minutes the coffee was steaming, the bacon cooked, 
and prisoners and captors sat down together around 
the camp-fire, "like kinsmen true and brothers tried." 
The hungry, grateful Yankees ate with a relish such as 
no one can appreciate unless he has been in a like 
situation. 

No wonder there was a warm spot in every heart 
of the Third Ohio ever after for the generous Fifty- 
fourth. 

A fresh slide in the magic lantern gives another of 
these shifting war pictures. In the distance is Mission 
Ridge, which has just been stormed. That long line 
of prisoners passing over the pontoon bridge and up 
the stony mountain road is the Fifty-fourth Virginia. 
A soldier on duty at Kelly's Ferry asked indifferently 
of one of the prisoners as the regiment passed: 

" What regiment is this ? " 

" The Fifty-fourth Virginia," was the reply. 

In an instant the loungers sprang to their feet and 
rushed to camp. " The Fifty-fourth Virginia is at the 
ferry," they shouted as they ran in and out among the 
tents of the Third Ohio. 

The Ohio boys were quickly in motion. Boxes 
from home and all reserve stores were speedily ran- 
sacked. Coffee and sugar, beef and canned peaches 



744 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. ' 

and the best they had of everything were freely 
brought forth. They remembered gratefully their debt 
of honor, and paid it nobly. It was the same old 
scene over, with the shading reversed. For one night 
at least both Confederates and Yankees enjoyed again 
the sweet grace of hospitality that could bring a smile 
even to the grim visage of war. 



Domestic ©ies. 

Well might the mind be haunted, age after age 
with a social ideal never yet realized! Life, a sacred 
thing. Every child a divine promise. Every family 
beginning the race anew from a higher point. Brothers 
and sisters ministering angels to each other's purity 
and beneficence. Every addition a new element of 
happiness. Education the rearing of a living temple.. 
Conjugal love a central fountain in warm, fragrant, 
perpetual play. The father, the representative of 
God; feeding them, as a prophet, with more than 
angel's food ; as a priest, standing at the portico of the 
temple to guard it from pollution, or ministering at its 
holy altar, and finding his spirit purified and refreshed 
by the service ; swaying like a king, a divine scepter,, 
and tasting the Godlike blessedness of seeing his 
subjects find happiness and freedom in obedience. 

We speak of philosophers who " Look through 
Nature up to Nature's God." And shall it not be so< 
that our children can look through us up to the Godi 



DOMESTIC TIES. 745 

and Father of us all? Care not for the Babel towers 
of Shinar that cannot even touch the clouds, when at 
your own lowly thresholds are waiting chariots of fire 
to bear you beyond the firmament. Astronomers tell 
us of certain double stars that revolve about a common 
center, and in some way are necessary to each other. 
So, in the family life, there is a common center of in- 
terest and responsibility, affection and duty; they are 
two, yet one, and each is necessary to the other. 

Husbands should try to make home happy and 
holy. It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest, a bad 
man who makes his home wretched. Our house ought 
to be a little church, with holiness to the Lord over 
the door, but it ought never to be a prison, where 
there is plenty of rule and order, but little love and no 
pleasure. Married life is not all sugar, but grace in 
the heart will keep away most of the sours. Godliness 
and love can make a man like a bird in a hedge, sing 
among thorns and briers, and set others a singing too. 
It should be the husband's pleasure to please his wife, 
and the wife's care to care for her husband. He is 
kind to himself who is kind to his wife. I am afraid 
some men live by the rule of self, and when that is the 
case home happiness is a mere sham. When husbands 
and wives are well yoked, how light their load be- 
comes! It is not every couple that is a pair, and the 
more's the pity. In a true home all the strife is which 
can do the most to make the family happy. A home 
should be a Bethel, not Babel. 

The husband should be the house-band, binding all 
together like a corner-stone, but not crushing every- 



746 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

thing like a millstone. Unkind and domineering hus- 
bands ought not to pretend to be Christians, for they 
act clean contrary to Christ's demands. Yet a home 
must be well ordered, or it will become a Bedlam, and 
be a scandal to the village. If the father drops the 
reins, the family-coach will soon be in the ditch. A 
wise mixture of love and firmness will do it; but 
neither harshness not softness alone will keep home in 
happy order. Home is no home where the children 
are not in obedience ; it is rather a pain than a pleasure 
to be in it. Happy is he who is happy in his children, 
and happy are the children who are happy in their 
father. All fathers are not wise. Some are like Eli, 
and spoil their children. Not to cross our children is 
the way to make a cross of them. Those who never 
give their children the rod must not wonder if their 
children become a rod to them. 

Solomon says, " Correct thy son, and he shall give 
thee rest; yea, he shall give delight to thy soul." I 
am not clear that anybody wiser than Solomon lives 
in our time, though s'orae think they are. Young colts 
must be broken in, or they will make wild horses. 
Sdme fathers are all fire and fury, filled with passion 
at the smallest fault; this is worse than the other, and 
makes home a little hell instead of a heaven. No wind 
makes the miller idle, but too much upsets the mill 
altogether. Men who strike in their anger generally 
miss their mark. When God helps us to hold the 
reins firmly, but not to hurt the horses' mouths, all 
goes well. When home is ruled according to God's 
word, angels might be asked to stay a night with us, 



DOMESTIC TIES. 747 

and they would not find themselves out of their ele- 
ment. 

It is better to keep children to their duty by a sense 
of honor and by kindness, than by fear and punish- 
ment. 

A friend gave us the other day a startling illustra- 
tion of the disastrous influence on the mind of a 
susceptible boy of an angry and unjust epithet cast 
upon him by an excited father. The boy had com- 
mitted some rather serious misdemeanor, and the 
father became enraged. He was a tall, large, fine- 
looking man, and summoned the boy to see him. But 
the father lost possession of himself, and called his son 
an atrocious name. The boy turned pale. The epi- 
thet sank into his heart like lead, and now that he is a 
man and widely respected, he has been heard to say 
that from that moment he has known no such thing as 
love to his father. Before that he had been one of 
the most affectionate of boys, and has often tried to 
reason himself into his earlier love for his father ; but 
it has gone, and he cannot bring it back. The lesson 
of this fact is too plain and pungent to need naming. 

" Stint yourself," says Charles Buxton, " as you 
think good, in other things ; but don't scruple freedom 
in brightening home. Gay furniture and a brilliant 
garden are a sight day by day, and make life blither." 

If foreign parents are to be blamed for the 
" arranged " or compelled marriages, which we so 
strongly condemn, I think we are also to blame when 
we stand in the way of our children's happiness, or 
tacitly let it slip by, giving them no opportunity of 



748 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

making a rational choice in marriage. Surely it is the 
bounden duty of wise elders not to ignore nature, but 
to accept the inevitable cares of " pairing-time," when 
the young birds, fully fledged, will desire to leave the 
nest, however soft it is made ; wfcen that over-power- 
ing instinct before which the warmest filial love sinks 
cold and colorless will assert ifself, aye and guide itself, 
too ; unless we have strength and self-denial — ah, no 
end to parental self-denial! — to forget our personal 
pain, and, throwing ourselves heartily into the young 
folks' place, succeed in guiding it a little, also. 

At best, this love-season is a sad one, since few 
love affairs are perfectly smooth and happy, and to see 
our children suffer is sharper than to suffer ourselves; 
especially when we can no longer help them. . While 
they are babies, there is a certain omnipotence about 
parenthood ; but when the time comes that the child's 
unfailing shelter is no longer the mother's heart, when 
the father's strong right arm of guidance and protec- 
tion sinks absolutely powerless — then things grow 
hard. 

The foundation of domestic happiness is faith in the 
virtue of woman ; the foundation of political happiness ' 
is confidence in the integrity of man ; the foundation of 
all happiness, temporal and eternal, is reliance on the 
goodness of God. 

Men who drive their wives from their homes by 
drunkenness and unkindness, or downright cruelty, 
generally render a return and reconciliation impossible 
by casting reproach upon them, and by using oppro- 
brious epithets concerning them. Many a wretch who 



DOMESTIC TIES. 749 

never owned a decent bed nor furnished respectable 
board for the patient woman who toiled for him, has 
advertised his wife as at least a doubtful character, who 
had left them both "without cause or provocation;" 
and forbids the world " to trust her on his account," 
albeit he has no credit anywhere. 

The Kennebec " Journal," published at Augusta, 
Maine, gives an account of a husband who was more 
just towards his wife, whom he had driven away, and 
who was rewarded for his truthfulness and candor per- 
haps beyond his just deserts. "In 1 83 1 Jacob Flagg 
of this city, an intemperate man, had a most excel- 
lent wife, who, tired of her repeated failures in the line 
of reformation, finally left him. Flagg advertised her 
thus : ' Left my bed and board — one of the best of 
wives. Whoever will give information as to where I 
may find her, shall be suitably rewarded and all ex- 
penses paid.' It is fair to say the good wife returned, 
the husband reformed and the couple lived together 
happily for years." 

An eminent public man who shall be nameless — a 
man of great intellectual power, of real goodness of 
heart at bottom, but sadly broken and demoralized by 
a long-continued course of wrong-living and much 
wrong-doing — was once told by a boon companion how 
a certain other public man had been abusing him. 

"Never mind," said our eminent friend, whose soul 
was really above the level of petty scandal and malice. 
" The fellow is only a dirty blackguard and I care not 
to know what he says of me." 

" But, my dear sir, if he is allowed to go on in that 



75° WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

way, he will ruin your character, he will destroy your 
credit, perhaps injure your prospects for the future." 

"Tut, tut! My character — what there is of it — is 
too tough for such a man to injure it; my credit is a 
phantom, at best; and as for my prospects in the future, 
I doubt if he can make them more dubious than they 
now are." 

"Well," persisted the friend, after a little pause, 
"how do you like the idea of his making free with the 
name of your wife ? " 

The man was aroused on the instant. 

" He ! Does he dare ? " 

"Yes. He declares that your wife is altogether 
too good for you." 

"What? Does he say that?" 

" Yes, he has said it repeatedly." 

" Well, well — there's something good in the fellow, 
after all. Bless him for the truth he tells — for, my 
dear fellow, that is true — as true as the gospel." 

The great man sat for many minutes with his head 
bowed down upon his hand, and when he next looked 
up, his face had grown wondrously soft and pathetic. 

"Yes — he told the truth ! I think I'll go home and 
have a chat with that woman. Who knows but that 
she may help me? — Zounds! I have not thought of 
her. Bless the rascal for reminding me ! Yes, sir ! 
He told the truth there ! " 

And the worker for the nation — the politician, 
weak and weary— set forth to find the one being of 
earth in whom, when all else should have failed him, 
he felt he could trust. 



DOMESTIC TIES. 751 

"How do you manage him ! " This is the question 
that we heard asked of one of "the dearest and best " 
of wives, who was conspicuously happy in her domestic 
relations. "Ah!" she said, with a merry twinkle in 
her soft eyes, " the best way to manage a husband is 
not to manage him." We were struck with the subtle 
wisdom of the seeming paradox. 

There should be but one will with a married couple 
who are truly mated, and that should be the will of — 
both. To those who know the sweet authority of love, 
this will not seem like another paradox. We have 
known couples — not so many as we could wish— both 
of whom could truthfully say, after a dozen or twenty 
years' walking of the long path together, that they 
had had their own way, because the necessary mutual 
yielding had been done so cheerfully and so wholly 
that but the one way remained. 

Some of the more direct methods of managing 
husbands may be mentioned, if it can be done without 
getting preachy. "Keep him in love with you," is the 
first injunction to a wife who asks such a question. 
When that can be done, all the rest follows. How it 
can be done we do not know ; you ought to, if you 
know what he loved you for in the first place. We do 
not mean simply faithful and provident and kind, but 
loving, with all the world of meaning which that very 
word of God contains. It cannot always be done, for 
many men are selfish, sensual, devilish, and more yet 
are careless and unstable. But the good and true men 
who love their wives are easily manageable in all rea- 
sonable directions. 



752 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 



©HIIi^NTHI^OPY. 

Philanthropy is a duty. He who frequently prac- 
tices it, and sees his benevolent intentions realized, at 
length comes really to love him to whom he has done 
good. When, therefore, it is said, "Thou shalt love 
thy neighbor as thyself," it is not meant thou shalt love 
him first, and do him good in consequence of that 
love, but, thou shalt do good to thy neighbor, and this 
thy beneficence will engender in thee that love to man- 
kind which is the fullness and consummation of the 
inclination to do good. 

It is an old saying that charity begins at home, but 
this is no reason it should not go abroad. A man 
should live with the world as a citizen of the world ; he 
may have a preference for the particular quarter or 
square, or even alley in which he lives, but he should 
have a generous feeling for the welfare of the whole. 

The conqueror is regarded with awe, the wise man 
commands our esteem, but it is the benevolent man 
who wins our affections. 

"The great men of the world," says one, "are the 
shadowy men, who, having lived and died, now live 
again and forever, through their undying thoughts;" 
and he might have added, through their undying exam- 
ple. For though their voices shall no more audibly 
speak, the tones of their example will still be heard, 
louder than thunders, and more unceasingly than the 
flow of the tides or the winds of heaven, so that their 



PHILANTHROPY. 753 

true life will still be felt for good long after they have 
lapsed to the unseen world ! So it is that Moses still 
lives as the law-giver of the world, and Luther as the 
noble defender of the faith to the end of time, and that 
Washington and Lincoln and Garfield still live for 
their country, and that every faithful Christian will live, 
and his power be felt for good, long after he has left 
these scenes of time and sense forever! 

That sixpence thrown to a mendicant, only to be 
converted into gin or beer, that five pounds lent to 
a needy acquaintance, who always has been needy 
and always will be, because he has not the slightest 
sense of the value of money, nor the least conscience 
in obtaining it or spending it, these, with a hundred 
similar cases, are specimens of what I call the crime 
of benevolence. The donors err, not only in what 
they do, but in what they leave undone. They may 
be benevolent in vague intention, but of true philan- 
thropy they have not the slightest idea. 

Benevolence consists in mere kind feeling; doing 
good certainly sometimes, but in a vague and careless 
way, and more for its own pleasure than for another's 
benefit; giving, because to give is agreeable, but tak- 
ing little pains' to ascertain what has been the result of 
the gift. The donor has done his part, and that is 
enough. It may be another heresy, but I am afraid 
the reason that our charitable institutions are so 
numerous, and our subscription-lists so easy to fill up, is 
because, of all modes of benevolence, giving of money 
is the one which involves least trouble. 

But philanthropy costs trouble. It requires in the 

48 



754 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

individual some rather rare qualities ; powers of admin- 
istration and patient investigation; clear judgment and 
capacity for work ; a kind heart and a cool head — aye r 
and a hard head too. The power of saying No, and 
the will to say it, with a steady, strong, unvarying jus- 
tice, are as necessary as quick sympathy and ready help. 

There is nothing that requires so strict an econo- 
my as our philanthropy. We should husband our 
means as the agriculturist does his manure, which if 
he spread over too large a surface produces no crop, 
if over too small a one, exuberates in rankness and 
in weeds, or burns up- vegetation altogether. 

One who often speaks wisely, says : " Riches fly — 
clip their wings and give the orphans the feathers." 
There is no use of money equal to that of beneficence; 
here the enjoyment grows on reflection. 

Among all the schemes devised for doing good 
none are more worthy of support than those which 
seek during the summer time to place poor little city 
children for a few weeks in happy homes in the 
country. During the second week in August, 1879, 
over four hundred children under five years of age 
died in the city of New York alone. What a vast 
sacrifice of life ; what a source of sorrow ! Far worse 
than the yellow fever in Memphis. 

The name of Mrs. Elizabeth Fry will ever be held 
in veneration as the prisoners' friend, next to that of 
Howard. She was born May 21, 1780, and died 
October 13, 1845. The source of her usefulness may 
be learned from her words, spoken to a friend during 
her last illness : " Since my heart was touched at 



PHILANTHROPY. 755 

seventeen years of age, I believe I have never 
awakened from sleep, in sickness or in health, by day 
or by night, without my first waking thought being, 
4 how I might best serve my Lord.' " In 1818, a year 
and a half after her first visit to Newgate, order and 
prosperity prevailed within those walls. The "wild 
beasts " were harmless, kind and always industrious. 
The prison had become a marvel of industry and pro- 
priety ; the lord mayor, sheriff, and aldermen of Lon- 
don, came to witness the miracle ; and statesmen, 
scholars, highborn lords and ladies, and travelers from 
far and near, flocked to see the change. 

A beneficent person, like a fountain, waters the earth 
and spreads fertility. It is more delightful and more 
honorable to give than to receive. It is another's fault 
if he be ungrateful, but it is mine if I do not give. To 
find one thankful man I will help many that are not so. 
A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a 
mad patient, nor does he take it ill to be railed at by 
a man in a fever. Just so should a wise man treat all 
mankind, as a physician does his patient, and look 
upon them only as sick and extravagant. Shall we 
repine at a little misplaced charity, we who could no 
way foresee the effect, — when an all-knowing, all-wise 
Being showers down every day His benefits on the 
unthankful and undeserving? 

There cannot be a more glorious object in creation 
than a human being replete with benevolence, medi- 
tating in what manner he might render himself most 
acceptable to his Creator by doing most good to his 
creatures. 



75 ^ WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 



No system of philosophy has ever yet worked out 
in behalf of woman the practical results for her good 
which Christianity has conferred on her. Christianity 
has raised woman from slavery, and made her the 
thoughtful companion of man ; it finds her the mere 
toy or the victim of his passions, and it places her by 
his side, his truest friend, his most faithful counsellor, 
his helpmeet in every worthy and honorable task. It 
protects her far more effectually than any other sys- 
tem. It cultivates, elevates, strengthens, purifies all 
her highest endowments, and holds out to her aspira- 
tions the most sublime for that future state of exist- 
ence where precious rewards are promised to every 
faithful discharge of duty, even the most humble. 
But while conferring on her these priceless blessings, 
it also enjoins the submission of the wife to the hus- 
band, and allots a subordinate position to the whole 
sex while here on earth. 

There must of necessity, in such a state of things, 
be certain duties inalienably connected with the posi- 
tion of man; others inalienably connected with the 
position of woman. For the one to assume the duties 
of the other becomes, first, an act of desertion, next, an 
act of usurpation. For the man to discharge worthily 
the duties of his own position becomes his highest 
merit. For the woman to discharge worthily the du- 
ties of her own position becomes her highest merit. 



MARRIAGE VOWS. 757 

To be noble, the man must be manly ; to be noble, 
the woman must be womanly. Independently of the 
virtues required equally of both sexes, such as truth, 
uprightness, candor, fidelity, honor, we look in man 
for somewhat more of wisdom, of vigor, of courage, 
from natural endowment combined with enlarged ac- 
tion and experience ; in woman we look more es- 
pecially for greater purity, modesty, patience, grace, 
sweetness, tenderness, refinement, as the consequences 
of a finer organization in a protected and sheltered 
position. That state of society will always be the 
most rational, the soundest, the happiest, where each 
sex conscientiously discharges its own duties without 
intruding on those of the other. The two make up 
but one species, one body politic and religious. There 
are many senses besides marriage in which the two are 
one. It is the right hand and the left, both belonging 
to one body, moved by common feeling, guided by 
common reason. The left hand may at times be 
required to do the work of the right, the right to act 
as the left. Even in this world there are occasions 
when the last are first and the first last, without dis- 
turbing the general order of things. The exceptional 
cases temper the general rule, but they cannot abro- 
gate that rule as regards the entire sex. Man learns 
from them not to exaggerate his superiority — a lesson 
very often needed. And woman learns from them to 
connect self-respect and dignity with true humility, and 
never, under any circumstances, to sink into the mere 
tool and toy of man — a lesson equally important. 

Any revolution aiming at upsetting the existing 



758 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

relations of the sexes — relations going back to the 
earliest records and traditions of the race — cannot be 
called less than formidable and dangerous. 

There is a creed abroad that a. young man is better 
alone, free from all incumbrance of wife or children ; 
but in the old times it was not so. Then children were 
esteemed "a heritage and gift that cometh from the 
Lord;" now, selfish luxury, worldliness and the love 
of outward show have brought our young men — ay, 
and some women too — to such a pass that they feel, 
nay, openly declare, every child born to them is a new 
enemy; and marriage, instead of being "honorable" to 
all, is a folly, a delusion, or a dread. Why is this ? And 
is it the men's fault, or the women's? Both, perhaps; 
yet I think chiefly the women's. Feeble, useless, half- 
educated; taught to believe that ignorance is amusing 
and helplessness attractive; no wonder the other sex 
shrinks from taking upon itself, not a help, but a 
burden — charming enough before marriage — but after? 
The very man who at first exulted in his beautiful, 
ornamental wife, his sweet, humble Circassian slave, 
will by-and-bybe the first to turn around and scorn her. 

Marriage is a divine institution. It is founded on 
the nature of man as constituted by God. He made 
man male and female, and ordained marriage as the 
indispensable condition of the continuance of the race. 
Marriage was instituted before the existence of civil 
society, and, therefore, cannot in its essential nature 
be a civil institution. We cannot exaggerate the 
importance to society of entertaining sound views of 
the sanctity of marriage, for the more nearly we realize 



MARRIAGE VOWS. 759 

the divine idea of marriage, the more nearly will we 
approach to the Edenic purity and happiness of the 
human race. 

Injudicious marriages are causing much unhappi- 
ness in the world. In the first place as to the social 
position of the parties : while we are no great stickler 
for social position, yet it is necessary that some atten- 
tion should be paid to it. While it is not very im- 
portant with a man, it is with a woman. A husband 
takes his wife into his own social position, whether it 
is to lift her up or drag her down to it. The woman 
who marries beneath her is apt to cut herself off from 
the old associations of friends and family. She will be 
made to feel very bitterly; and in many instances the 
result is that, seeing her friends and family looking 
down upon her husband, she comes finally to recognize 
his inferiority and to regard him with disgust. God 
intended that a wife should look up to her husband 
with a trustful and affectionate respect, and not to look 
down upon him as her inferior. Such marriages are 
not fortunate. 

The sweetheart relation should be guarded very 
carefully, because when once formed there is such a 
glamour upon the eyes that they cannot see things as 
they are. After marriage it is too late. It is a dif- 
ficult thing for the young lady to believe that the 
young man of her choice has bad habits. If any one 
has the frankness to tell her of them, she either thinks 
there is some mistake about it, or that her informant 
is actuated by malicious motives or that her betrothed 
will now lay them aside. Some heroic maidens say: 



760 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

"Well, I will marry him despite his bad habits. I will 
marry him and reform him." There may be a few 
such cases of reformation, but nine cases out of ten 
the man goes to the dogs, and takes the devoted 
young woman along with him. If she had known at 
the outset the style of man he was, she would not 
have suffered her heart to become interested in him;; 
but afterwards she has not the moral strength to con- 
quer her attachment. 

But vicious habits are not the only ones that wreck 
the happiness of married life. There may be a bad 
temper, there may be untruthfulness and insincerity, 
there may be coarseness, there may be habits which 
are not domestic, there may be an arbitrary and tyran- 
nical disposition. If young ladies were a little more 
guarded in coming into what we term the sweetheart 
relation, there would not be so many wives with 
crushed spirits and broken hearts. 

Marriage is, of all earthly unions, almost the only 
one permitting of no change but that of death. It is 
that engagement in which man exerts his most awful 
and solemn power — the power of responsibility which 
belongs to him as one that shall give account — the 
power of abnegating the right to change — the power 
of parting with his freedom — the power of doing that 
which in this world can never be reversed. And yet 
it is perhaps that relationship which is spoken of most 
frivolously and entered into most carelessly and most 
wantonly. It is not a union merely between two crea- 
tures, it is a union between two spirits ; and the inten- 
tion of that bond is to perfect the nature of both by 



MARRIAGE VOWS. 76 1 

supplementing their deficiencies with the force of con- 
trast, giving to each sex those excellencies in which it 
is naturally deficient; to the one strength of character 
and firmness of moral will, to the other sympathy, 
meekness, tenderness. And just so solemn, and just 
so glorious as these ends are for which the union was 
contemplated and intended, just so terrible are the 
consequences if it be perverted and abused ; for there 
is no earthly relationship which has so much power to 
ennoble and to exalt. 

" The married man," says Feltham, " is like the bee 
that fixes his hive, augments the world, benefits the 
republic, and by daily diligence, without wronging any, 
profits all ; but he who contemns wedlock, like a wasp 
wanders an offense to the world, lives upon spoil and 
rapine, disturbs peace, steals sweets that are none of 
its own, and, by robbing the hives of others, meets 
misery as his due reward." 

" Hast thou a soft heart ? It is of God's breaking. 
Hast thou a sweet wife ? She is of God's making. 
The Hebrews have a saying, ' He is not a man that 
hath not a woman.' Though man alone may be good, 
yet it is not good that man should be alone. ' Every 
good gift and every perfect gift is from above.' A 
wife, though she be not a perfect gift, is a good gift, a 
beam darted from the Sun of mercy. How happy are 
those marriages where Christ is at the wedding ! Let 
none but those who have found favor in God's eyes 
find favor in yours. Husbands should spread a mantle 
of charity over their wives' infirmities. Do not put out 
the candle because of the snuff. Husbands and wives 



762 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

should provoke one another to love, and they should 
love one another notwithstanding provocations. The 
tree of love should grow up in the midst of the family 
as the tree of life grew in the garden of Eden. 
Good servants are a great blessing ; good children a 
greater blessing ; but a good wife is the greatest 
blessing ; and such a helpmeet let him seek for that 
wants one ; let him sigh for her that hath lost one ; 
let him delight in her that enjoys one." 

- I 1 S ^^§h-H— 



(Conjugal Fidelity. 

" Thrice happy they, and more than that, 
Whom band of love so firmly tics, 
That without brawls till death them part, 
'Tis undissolved and never dies." 

One may venture to affirm, that with all their 
profligate ideas, both of women and religion, neither 
Bolingbrake, Wharton, Buckingham, Lord Chester- 
field, nor even Aaron Burr would have esteemed a 
woman the more for her being irreligious. For with 
whatever ridicule a polite free-thinker may effect to 
treat religion himself, he will think it necessary that 
his wife should entertain different notions of it. He 
may pretend to despise it as a matter of opinion, depend- 
ing on creeds and systems; but if he is a man of sense 
he will know the value of it, as a governing principle, 
which is to influence her conduct and direct her 
actions. If he sees her unaffectedly sincere in the 
practice of her religious duties, it will be a secret 



CONJUGAL FIDELITY. 7 6$ 

pledge to him, that she will be equally exact in fulfilling 
the conjugal; for he can have no reasonable depen- 
dence on her attachment to him, if he has no opinion 
of her fidelity to God. She who neglects first duties 
gives but an indefinite proof of her disposition to fill up 
inferior ones, and. how can a man of any understand- 
ing (whatever his own religious professions may be) 
trust that woman with the care of his family, and the 
education of his children, who herself wants the best 
incentive to a virtuous life, the belief that she is an 
accountable creature, and the reflection that she has an 
immortal soul ? 

The author of "Sermons out of Church" gives sen- 
sible advice in the following words : " I say distinctly, 
wives, obey your husbands, as children, your parents 
— in the Lord. But only in the Lord. Yield as much 
as possible in ordinary things; conquer your tempers, 
modify your tastes; give up everything, in short, that is 
not a compromise of principle. When it comes to 
that, resist! Whatever they may be to you, and how 
great soever your love for them, resist them. Never 
allow either father, husband, brother, son, to stand 
between you and the clear law of right and wrong in 
your own soul, which the God who made you has put 
there. If you do, you fall into that sin of which I 
speak; and will assuredly, soon or late, earn its bitter 
wages." 

The man's desire is for the woman ; but the 
woman's desire is rarely other than for the desire of 
the man. A good wife is like the ivy which beau- 
tifies the building to which it clings, twining its 



764 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

tendrils more lovingly as time converts the ancient 
edifice into a ruin. Hannah More says: "Absence in 
love is like water upon fire; a little quickens, but much 
extinguishes it." 

The love of some men for their wives is like that 
of Alfieri for his horse. " My attachment for him," 
said he, " went so far as to destroy my peace every 
time that he had the least ailment, but my love for 
him did not prevent me from fretting and chafing him 
whenever he did not wish to go my way." 

The Bible gives us infallible rules upon this mat- 
ter : "For this cause shall a man leave father and 
mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain 
shall be one flesh." "Wherefore they are no more 
twain, but one flesh. What, therefore, God has joined 
together, let no man put asunder." " So ought men 
to love their wives as their own bodies. He that lov- 
eth his wife loveth himself." 

Have you ever seen the young red foxes mating? 
They stare upon each other with wide-open eyes for 
some minutes, and then lie down side by side in the 
shade of the rock, with eyes half closed, as if perfectly 
content. Keep your eyes well open upon each other's 
faults while you are in the period of courtship; but 
when you are married let your eyes be partly closed 
in charity, forbearing with and in love helping to 
remove your mutual failings. 

I wonder whether the subtle measuring of forces will 
ever come to measuVing the force there is in one beauti- 
ful woman whose mind is as noble as her face is 



CONJUGAL FIDELITY. 765 

beautiful — who makes a man's passion for her rush 
in one current with all the great aims of his life ! 

O woman ! thou knowest the hour when the good- 
man of the house will return, when the heat and bur- 
den of the day are past. Do not let him at such time, 
when he is weary with toil and jaded with discourage- 
ment, find upon his coming to his habitation that the 
foot which should hasten to meet him is wandering at 
a distance, that the soft hand which should wipe the 
sweat from his brow is knocking at the door of other 
houses. 

Theodore Parker wrote: " Young people marry 
their opposites in temperament and general character 
and such marriages are generally good ones. They 
do it instinctively. The young man does not say, 
* My black eyes require to be wed with blue, and my 
over-vehemence requires to be a little modified with 
somewhat dullness and reserve.' When these oppo- 
sites come together to be wed they do not .know it, 
but each think the other just like themselves." 

Old people never marry their opposites; they 
marry their similars and from calculation. Each of 
these two arrangements is very proper. In their long 
journey these opposites will fall out a great many 
times, and charm the other back again, and by and by 
they will be agreed as to the place they will go to, and 
the road they will go by, and both be reconciled. The 
man will be nobler and larger for being associated with 
so much humanity unlike himself, and she will be a 
nobler woman for having manhood beside her that 
seeks to correct her deficiencies and supply her with 



766 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

what she lacks, if the diversity be not too great, and if 
there be real generosity and love in their hearts to 
begin with. The old bridegroom, having a much 
shorter journey to make, must associate himself with 
one like himself. 

A perfect and complete marriage is, perhaps, as 
rare as perfect personal beauty. Men and women are 
married fractionally, now a small fraction, then a large 
^fraction. Very few are married totally, and then only, 
I think, after some forty or fifty years of gradual ap- 
proach and experiment. 

Such a large and sweet fruit is a complete mar- 
riage, that it needs a very long summer to ripen in, 
and then a long winter to mellow and season. But a 
real, happy marriage of love and judgment between a 
noble man and woman is one of the things so very 
handsome that, if the sun were as the Greek poets 
fabled, a god, he might stop the world in order to 
feast his^eyes with such a spectacle. 

One of the quaintest old books that you may find 
in many a day is Burton's " Anatomy of Melancholy," 
but we take a few thoughts from it, that are pleasing, 
both in their quaintness and suggestiveness. 

As Seneca lived with his Paulina, Abraham and 
Sarah, Orpheus and Euridyce, Rubenius Celer, that 
would needs have it engraven on his tomb he had led 
his life with Ennea, his dear wife, forty-three years 
eight months, and never fell out. There is no pleasure 
in this world comparable to it, as one holds, there's 
something in a woman beyond all human delight; a 
magnetic virtue, a charming quality, an occult and 



CONJUGAL FIDELITY. >]6j 

powerful motive. The husband rules her as head, but 
she again commands his heart, lie is her servant, she is 
only joy and content ; no happiness is like unto it, no 
love so great as this of man and wife, no such comfort 
as a sweet wife. When they love at last as fresh as 
they did at first, as Homer brings Paris kissing Helen, 
after they had been married ten years, protesting- 
withal that he loved her as dear as he did the first hour 
that he was betrothed. And in their old age, when they 
made much of one another, saying, as he did to his 
wife in the poet, 

" Dear wife, let's live in love, and die together, 

As hitherto we have in all good will : 
' Let no day change or alter our affections, 

But let's be young to one another still." 

Such should conjugal love be, still the same, and as 
they are one flesh, so should they be of one mind, as 
in an aristocratical government, one consent, Geyron- 
like, have one heart in two bodies, will and will the 
same. A good wife, according to Plutarch, should be 
as a looking-glass to represent her husband's face and 
passion ; if he be pleasant, she should be merry ; if he 
laugh, she should smile ; if he look sad, she should 
participate of his sorrow and bear a part with him, and 
so should they continue in mutual love one towards 
another. 

" No age shall part my love from thee, sweet wife, 
Though I live Nestor or Tithonus' life." 

And she again to him, as the bride saluted the bride- 
groom of old in Rome: "Be thou still Caius, I'll be 
Caia." 



768 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 



<9HE r?EA^JPH-Sn«ONE. 

We are hanging up pictures every day about the chamber walls of our hearts 
that we shall have to look at when we sit in the shadows. 

Ah, boys! you who have gone out from the old 
homesteads into the rush and bustle of life, do you 
ever think of the patient mothers who are stretching 
out to you arms that are powerless to draw you back 
to the old home nest ? Arms that were strong to carry 
you once, pressed to hearts that love you now as then. 

No matter though your hair is "silver-streaked," 
and Dot in the cradle calls you "Grandpa," you are 
only "the boys" so long as mother lives. You are 
the children of the old home. Nothing can crowd you 
out of mother's heart. You may have failed in the 
battle of life, and your manhood may have been crushed 
out against the wall of circumstances, you may have 
been prosperous, and gained wealth and fame, but 
mothers love has followed you always. Many a "boy " 
has not been home for five, ten, or twenty years. And 
all this time mother has been waiting. Ah, who does 
not know the agony expressed by that word? She 
may be even now saying, "I dreampt of John last 
night. Maybe he will come to-day. He may drop 
in for dinner;" and the poor trembling hands prepare 
some favorite dish for him. Dinner comes and goes, 
but John comes not with it. Thus, day after day, 
month after month, and year after year passes, till at 
last " hope deferred maketh the hear; sick," ay, sick 



THE HEARTH-STONE. 769 

unto death, — the feeble arms are stretched out no 
longer. 

The dim eyes are closed, the gray hairs are 
smoothed for the last time, and the tired hands are 
folded to everlasting rest, and the mother waits no 
more on earth for one who comes not. God grant she 
may not have to wait vainly for his coming in heaven. 
Once more I say to you, boys, go home, if only for a 
day. Let mother know you have not forgotten her. 
Her days may be numbered. " Next winter" may 
cover her grave with snow. 

A home is the place where character is formed, 
where education goes on, and where people are im- 
pressed for time and for eternity. It is a place to be 
happy in, and to start out from, for all good, honest, 
and earnest living. Very great is her responsibility 
who is queen of this kingdom. To a very great extent 
she makes or mars its completeness. 

In a home there should be liberty without license, 
time for family intercourse, and space for personal 
solitude, room for the entertainment of guests, and 
the maintenance of social life ; over all, a tender, trust- 
ful, daily atmosphere of true devotion and communing 
with God. 

Let nobody who is a housekeeper fear to magnify 
her office. It is a sacred one, and if she perform its 
duties faithfully, she is worthy of no stinted praise. 

Of course young people ought to marry early, and 
build up a home together. The idea that a man must 
be wealthy before he weds fills the community with 

fortune-seeking bachelors and unhappy spinsters ; it 

49 



770 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

endangers virtue, destroys the true economy and de- 
sign and the beneficent intentions 'of the home. It 
promotes vice, idleness, inefficiency and imbecility 
among women, who 'seem, from an unsympathetic out- 
set thenceforward, to expect to be taken up by fortune 
and passively sustained, and without any concern on 
their part. It is thus that a man finds it difficult to 
obtain a helpmeet. However large you make the 
circle of a woman's life, home ought to be its center. 
A good husband makes a good wife. Some men 
can neither do without wives nor with them ; they are 
wretched alone in what is called single blessedness, 
and they make their homes miserable when they get 
married ; they are like Tompkins' dog, which could not 
bear to be loose and howled when it was tied up. 
Happy bachelors are likely to be happy husbands, and 
a happy husband is the happiest of men. A well- 
matched couple carry a joyful life between them, as 
the two spies carry the cluster of Eschol. They are a 
brace of birds of paradise. They multiply their joys 
by sharing them, and lessen their troubles by dividing 
them. This is fine arithmetic. • The wagon of care 
rolls lightly along as they pull together, and when it 
drags a little heavily, or there is a hitch anywhere, 
they love each other so much the more; and so lighten 
the labor. 



THE TRUE WIFE. fjl 



<£>HE ©I^UE &5IFE. 

Woman is the Sunday of man ; not his repose only, but his joy ; the salt of 
his life. — Michelet. 

The heart of a man, with whom affection is not a 
name, and love a mere passion of the hour, yearns 
towards the quiet of a home, as towards the goal of his 
earthly joy and hope. And as you fasten there your 
thought, an indulgent yet dreamy fancy paints the 
loved image that is to adorn it, and to make it sacred. 

She is there to bid you God-speed ! and an adieu, 
that hangs like music on your ear, as you go out to 
the every-day labor of life. At evening she is there 
to greet you, as you come back wearied with a day's 
toil ; and her look, so full of gladness, cheats you of 
your fatigue ; and she steals her arm around you, with 
a soul of welcome, that beams like sunshine on her 
brow and that fills your eye with tears of a twin Grati- 
tude — to her, and heaven. 

She is not unmindful of those old-fashioned vir- 
tues of cleanliness and of order, which give an air of 
quiet, and which secure content. Your wants are all 
anticipated ; the fire is burning brightly ; the clean 
hearth flashes under the joyous blaze ; the old elbow- 
chair is in its place. Your very unworthiness of all 
this haunts you like an accusing spirit, and yet pene- 
trates your heart with a new devotion towards the loved 
one who is thus watchful of your comfort. 

She is gentle ; keeping your love as she has won 



JJ2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

it, by a thousand nameless and modest virtues, which 
radiate from her whole life and action. She steals 
upon your affections like a summer wind breathing 
softly over sleeping valleys. She gains a mastery 
over your sterner nature by very contrast, and wins 
you unwittingly to her lightest wish. And yet her 
wishes are guided by that delicate tact, which avoids 
conflict with your manly pride; she subdues, by seem- 
ing to yield. By a single, soft word of appeal, she 
robs your vexation of its anger ; and with a slight 
touch of that fair hand, and one pleading look of that 
earnest eye, she disarms your sternest pride. 

She is kind ; — shedding her kindness as Heaven 
sheds dew. Who indeed could doubt it? — least of all, 
you who are living on her kindness day by day, as 
flowers live on light ? There is none of that officious 
parade which blunts the point of benevolence ; but it 
tempers every action with a blessing. 

She is good ; her hopes live where the angels live. 
Her kindness and gentleness are sweetly tempered 
with that meekness and forbearance which are born of 
faith. Trust comes into her heart as rivers come to 
the sea. And in the dark hours of doubt and fore- 
boding you rest fondly on her buoyant faith as the 
treasure of your common life ; and in your holier 
musings you look to that frail hand and that gentle 
spirit to lead you away from the vanities of worldly 
ambition, to the fullness of that joy which the good 
inherit. 

The true wife takes a sympathy in her husband's 
pursuits. She cheers him, encourages him, and helps 



THE TRUE WIFE. JJ1, 

him. She enjoys his successes and his pleasures, and 
makes as little as possible over his vexations. 

Oftentimes I have seen a tall ship glide by against 
the tide, as if drawn by an invisible tow line with a 
hundred strong arms pulling it. Her sails unfurled, 
her streamers drooping, she had neither side-wheel 
nor stern-wheel ; still she moved on, stately, in serene 
triumph, as with her own life. But I knew that on the 
other side of the ship hidden beneath the great hulk 
that swam so majestically, there was a little toilsome 
steam tug, with a heart of fire and arms of iron, that 
was tugging it bravely on ; and I knew that if the little 
steam tug untwined her arms and left the ship it would 
wallow and roll away, and drift hither and thither, and 
go off with the affluent tide, no man knows where ; 
and so I have known more than one genius, high- 
decked, full-freighted, wide-sailed, gay pennoned, who, 
but for the bare, toiling arm and brave, warm heart of 
the faithful little wife that nestled close to him so that 
no wind or wave could part them, would have gone 
down with the stream and been heard of no more. 

A judicious wife is always nipping off from her hus- 
band's moral nature little twigs that are growing 
in wrong directions. She keeps him in shape by 
continual pruning. If you say anything silly, she will 
affectionately tell you so. If you declare that you will 
do some absurd thing, she will find some means of 
preventing you from doing it. And by far the chief 
part of all the common sense there is in this world 
belongs unquestionably to women. The wisest things 
a man commonly does, are those which his wife coun- 



774 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

sels him to do. A wife is a grand wielder of the moral 
pruning-knife. If Johnson's wife had lived, there 
would have been no hoarding up of orange peel, no 
touching all the posts in walking along the streets, no 
eating and drinking with disgusting voracity. 
If Oliver Goldsmith had been married he never would 
have worn that memorable and ridiculous coat. 
Whenever you find a man whom you know little 
about, oddly dressed, or talking absurdly, or exhibit- 
ing eccentricity of manner, you may be sure that 
he is not a married man, for the corners are rounded 
off — the little shoots pared away — in married men. 
Wives have generally much more, sense than their 
husbands, even though they may be clever men. The 
wife's advice is like the ballast that keeps the ship 
steady. 

Great attention, and with good cause has been 
given to the "social evil," which it is declared is 
increasing with alarming rapidity. Perhaps we may 
discover one of the hidden, but, as I believe, a most 
potent cause, of this great destroyer of home life, in 
the deplorable ideas imbibed by our daughters, from 
social surroundings. Society teaches them that the 
greatest misfortune that can befall a wife is to be a 
mother. With this idea implanted and cultivated by 
sly inuendoes and slighting remarks, they enter the 
sacred condition of wives with the most profound aver- 
sion for that of mothers. Domestic disruption, alien- 
ated affections, blasted and blighted hopes, shattered 
health, and final damnation of soul, are results that 
only too surely follow. 



THE CROWN OF HONOR. 775 



<£>HE (©P^OWN OP f?ONOI^. 

Beyond death's cloudy portal 

There is a land where beauty never dies, 

Where love becomes immortal. 

He that does good for good's sake seeks neither praise nor reward, though 
sure of both at last. 

That is the mother's recompense, to see children 
coming up useful in the world, reclaiming the lost, 
healing the sick, pitying the ignorant, earnest and use- 
ful in every sphere. That throws a new light back on 
the old family Bible whenever she reads it, and that 
will be ointment to soothe the aching limbs of decrepi- 
tude, and light up the closing hours of life's day with 
the glories of an autumnal sunset ! 

There she sits, the old Christian mother, ripe for 
heaven. Her eye-sight is almost gone, but the splen- 
dors of the celestial city kindle up her vision. The 
gray light of heaven's morn has struck through the 
gray locks which are folded back over the wrinkled 
temples. She stoops very much now under the burden 
•of care she used to carry for her children. She sits 
at home, too old to find her way to the house of God; 
but while she sits there, all the past comes back, and 
the children that forty years ago tripped around her 
arm-chair with their griefs, and joys, and sorrows — 
those children are gone now. Some caught up into a 
better realm, where they shall never die, and others 
out in the broad world, testing the excellency of a 
Christian mother's discipline. Her last days are full 



Jj6 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH* 

of peace ; and calmer and sweeter will her spirit be- 
come, until the gates of life shall lift and let in the 
worn-out pilgrim into eternal springtide and youth, 
where the limbs never ache, and the eyes never grow 
dim, and the staff of the exhausted and decrepit pilgrim 
shall become the palm of the immortal athlete. 

There remains in the faces of women who are 
naturally serene and peaceful, and of those rendered so* 
by religion, an after-spring, and, later, an after-summer, 
the reflex of their most beautiful bloom. 

"Isn't Aunt Charity a darling old lady? " said one 
of Aunt Charity's nieces. 

She was, indeed, a sunbeam. The strong, resolute, 
brave face, the white hair under the plain cap, the 
sweet, smiling mouth, were all winning. We could 
depend on the motherly woman who was so jolly, so 
full of fun and frolic, so ready to join in whatever 
mirth was afloat. Everybody came to her with their 
joys and their griefs, sure of sympathy. An hour 
with her was a tonic. 

It is well for the old to be cheerful. They have 
much to depress them. Health is failing. Friends 
are passing away. Another generation is on the 
stage. Other hands take up the world's work. They 
feel, perhaps, with a bitter regret, that they are not 
needed as they once were. Nevertheless, they should 
cultivate every source of happiness which remains. 
The love of children and grandchildren, the greater 
dignity and larger leisure of life, and the quiet hours 
they can have for communion with God, should be 
appreciated highly. They should get into the habit of 



THE CROWN OF HONOR. J 7 J 

saying good-morning, every day, to this world, where 
they have had so many eager, busy, happy and holy 
days. 

Some of the planets finish their rotations in much 
less time than others. The nearer they are to the sun 
the more speedily they revolve. Mercury, for instance, 
is not quite eighty-eight days in accomplishing his year,, 
while Saturn takes up considerably more than twenty- 
nine of our years in circuiting the same common 
centre. Thus, some of God's converted people are 
soon matured for glory by their nearness to and inti- 
mate communion with the Sun of Righteousness. 
These are frequently known to outrun their brethren, 
and (like John at the tomb of our Lord) to reach the 
sepulchre, finish their course, and ascend to their Mas- 
ter's joy at a very early period ; while other saints, 
who do not ripen so fast, or who have a larger field of 
usefulness to occupy while on earth, are detained from 
their crown until they are full of years and good 
works. Each of these is gathered as a shock of 
corn in its season. O believer, if thy God summon 
thee away betimes, His Spirit will perfect that which 
concerneth thee ; nor will Providence apply the sickle 
until grace has made thee white for the harvest. Or, 
if He lengthens thy thread, having much for thee to 
do, and much to suffer, He will show himself the God 
of thy old age, and not forsake thee when thou art 
gray-headed ; for He hath invariably declared, " Even 
to your old age I am He ; and even to hoar hairs will 
I carry you." 

" Made in the image of God." We cannot telL 



JJ& WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

what it means. It is one of those vast thoughts of 
God we catch the trailing fringes of. It is one of those 
luminous heights of God's thought up which we gaze, 
and they are summitless to us. But we are to think 
up towards them, and every day stretch in their 
direction. 

— ■ - ^i^Bi'r ' - ■ — 
(She Good Old Days. 

Old tunes are sweetest and old friends surest. 

A writer, comparing ancient with modern wealth, 
thus describes it: * 

" Ptolemy Philadelphus, of Egypt, amassed a little 
property, three hundred and fifty million dollars. 
Cleopatra gave her lover a pearl dissolved in vinegar, 
worth four hundred thousand dollars. Paulina, one of 
the ton in Rome, wore jewels, when she returned her 
visits, worth eight hundred thousand dollars. Cicero, 
who was a poor man, gave one hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars for his house, and Claudius paid six 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars for his establish- 
ment on the Palatine, while Massala gave two million 
dollars for the house on Antium. Seneca, who was 
just a plain philosopher, was worth one hundred and 
twenty million dollars. Tiberius left a property of 
nearly one hundred and twenty million dollars. 

"And these fellows lived well. Esopus, who was 
a play actor, paid four hundred thousand dollars for a 
single dish. Caligula spent four hundred thousand 
dollars on a supper. The beds of Heliogabalus were 



THE GOOD OLD DAYS. 779 

of solid silver, his table and plates were of pure gold, 
and his mattresses, covered with carpets of cloth-of- 
gold, were stuffed with down from under the wing of 
the partridge." 

An aged clergyman writes: "The pulpit is not 
what it was when I was a boy. Sermons were then 
preached which I would give half the little I possess to 
hear again. Oh, it is sad to witness the degeneracy 
of these latter days!" Much more follows in the same 
strain ; but all this is not criticism. Mere complaining 
and scolding, railing at the age, do no good. Such 
writers would spend their time to much more profit, 
were they to analyze some representative sermons of 
the past and others of to-day, and show wherein this 
superiority consists. There is a filmy exaggeration in 
years which plays tricks with our judgment. We do 
not doubt but that close analysis will rirove that never 
in the history of the church has the average of pulpit 
oratory been higher than it is to-day. The world is 
ever apt to complain of the present, and look backward 
for its golden age. A Grecian once overheard the 
remark, "This age is degenerate." "Yes," said he, 
"'that must be true, for my grandfather told me that 
when he was a boy he often heard his grandfather say 
the same thing." 

We belong to that hopeful class who believe that 
there is more religion in the world now than at any 
previous period. Undoubtedly there are more churches 
and more professors of religion. There are more 
Bibles printed, circulated, and, as we firmly believe, read, 
loved, and obeyed than at any other time in the history 



780 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

of the world. Only think! the precious word of God 
is now printed and circulated in nearly three hundred 
of the babbling- tongues of our human race. And 
this gift of life is being carried to all nations. One 
reason that some persons imagine the world to be get- 
ting worse is found in the fact that our modern appli- 
ances for collecting intelligence gathers up and pub- 
lishes everything — good and bad — that is going on in 
the world. 

The telegraph and the daily paper tell us every- 
thing. The world's wickedness as well as its good- 
ness, is laid bare to public inspection. But the 
fact that we see and hear more of the wickedness that 
is done is, in itself, no proof that more is committed. 

Standing proudly among the ages of the past, this 
century shall say to her sister centuries : " I bring as a 
result of my life work among the nations, that grand- 
est of all the products of time — a perfect Christian 
gentleman ." 

The charm of old books and old songs is indescrib- 
able. They breathe the spirit of a bygone day that 
none but the one who has lived amid those scenes, can 
fully comprehend. Who has not experienced the 
pleasure of listening to an aged tongue, alive with an 
eloquence and enthusiasm belonging to a past age, as 
it told of the "good old days"; when we may tarry 
beside an aged couple and listen to the stories poured 
forth with artless oratory, as they forget the present 
in the past and again live over the inspiring scenes of 
youth — oh, then indeed we have a feast that we are 
senseless if we do not enjoy ! 




e : 
.& -1 



RESPECT THE AGED. 78 1 

A well known modern writer says : "Then the 
summer mornings were full of singing-birds, always 
waiting outside our windows to help us begin the day 
with happiness. Then flowers were born as if to 
accompany the birds in their benevolent mission. Then 
all our dreams were pleasant imaginings, Arabian 
Nights' Entertainments, frolic visions of untroubled 
joy. Then June was the longest and loveliest month 
in the calendar. Then we were never depressed by 
bad weather. Then headache had no lodgment 
nearer than our neighbor's brain. Then personal 
rheumatism was unknown to us. Then insomnia had 
not been invented, and we were not obliged to draw 
upon the apothecary for vials of sleep. Then we 
could walk twenty miles a day without fatigue. Then 
all was gold that glistened. Then we were young J "' 



**m 



^BSPBGIP HIHB flGBD. 

" Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old 
man, and fear thy God : I am the Lord." 

This is a duty imposed alike by the laws of God 
and nature. Nothing is more sacred or binding, save 
only the worship of God alone. In Egypt, to this day, 
if an aged person enter an apartment, the youth always 
rise from their seats. 

No more beautiful or touching scene can be wit- 
nessed than that of the quiet, unobtrusive veneration of 
the young person for one that is aged. Angels and all 



782 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

good men look on with approval when such an one 
puts away self and self-interest in order to render 
service to one whom God has spared to tread the 
farther borders of life. Acts of kindness and self- 
denial shown to the old, even though they are queru- 
lous and exacting, may be amongst the most satisfac- 
tory of a life-time, and bring the reward of an 
approving conscience at least. 

Of all forms of self-devotion, the one which, even 
when it amounts to absolute self-sacrifice, we can not 
but regard with very tender and lenient eyes, is the 
devotion of the young to. the old, of children to parents. 
No doubt there is a boundary beyond which even 
this ought not to be permitted ; but the remedy 
lies on the elder side. There are such things as 
unworthy, selfish, exacting parents, to whom duty 
must be done, simply for the sake of parenthood, with- 
out regarding their personality. "Honor thy father 
and thy mother" is the absolute command, bounded 
by no proviso as to whether the parents are good or 
bad. Of course no one can literally "honor" that 
which is bad — still one can respect the abstract bond 
in having patience with the individual. 

Age naturally awakens our respect. A Greek his- 
torian tells how, in the pure and early and most virtu- 
ous days of the republic, if an old man entered the 
crowded assembly, all ranks rose to give room and 
place to him. Age throws such a character of dignity 
even over inanimate objects, that the spectator regards 
them with a sort of awe and veneration. We have 
stood before the hoary and ivy-mantled ruin of a by- 



RESPECT THE AGED. J&$ 

gone age with deeper feelings of respect than ever 
touched us in the marbled halls and amid the gilded 
grandeur of modern palaces ; nor did the proudest 
tree which lifted its umbrageous head and towering 
form to the skies ever affecf us with such strange 
emotion as an old, withered, wasted trunk that, though 
hollowed by time into a gnarled shell, still showed 
some green signs of life. 

It was anciently a proverb among the heathen, "It 
is good to be an old man or woman only in Sparta." 
The ground of it was the strict laws among the Spar- 
tans to punish the rebellion and disobedience of chil- 
dren to their aged parents. And shall it not be good 
to be an old father and mother in this land, where the 
Gospel of Christ is preached? 

The Boston "Traveller," in commenting on the prev- 
alence of rudeness, tells the following incident that hap- 
pened some years ago : There • was a very plainly 
dressed elderly lady who was a frequent customer at 
the then leading dry goods store in Boston. No one 
in the store knew her even by name. All the clerks 
but one avoided her, and gave their attention to those 
who were better dressed and more pretentious. The 
exception was a young man who had a conscientious 
regard for duty and system. He never left another 
customer to wait on the lady, but when at liberty he 
waited on her with as much attention as if she had 
been a princess. This continued a year or two, until 
the young man became of age. One morning the 
lady approached the young man, and the following 
conversation took place : " Well, young man, do you 



784 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

wish to go into business for yourself ?'" "Yes, ma'am," 
he replied ; " but I have neither money, credit nor 
friends, nor will any one trust me." "Well," con- 
tinued the lady, " you go and select a good situa- 
tion, ask what the rent is, and report to me," 
handing the young man her address. The young 
man went, found a capital location, a good store, but 
the landlord required security, which he could not 
give. Mindful of the lady's request, he forthwith 
went to her and reported. " Well," she replied, "you 
go and tell Mr. M. that I will be responsible." He 
went, and the landlord or agent was surprised, but the 
bargain was closed. The next day the lady called to 
ascertain the result. The young man told her, but 
added, "What am I to do for goods? No one will 
trust me." "You may go and see Mr. A, and Mr. B, 
and Mr. C, and tell them to call on me." He did, 
and his store was soon stocked with the best goods in 
market. There are many in this city who remember 
the circumstance, and the man. He died many years 
ago, and left a fortune of three hundred thousand dol- 
lars. So much for politeness, so much for civility, and 
so much for treating one's elders with the deference 
due to age, in whatever garb they are clothed. 

A Russian princess of great beauty, in company with 
her father and a young French marquis, visited a cele- 
brated Swiss doctor of the eighteenth century, Michael 
Scuppack, when the marquis began to pass one of his 
jokes upon the long white beard of one of the doctor's 
neighbors who was present. He offered, to bet twelve 
louis d'ors that no lady present would dare to kiss the 



WELL EARNED REST. 785 

dirty old fellow. The Russian princess ordered her 
attendant to bring a plate, and deposited twelve louis 
d'ors and sent it to the marquis, who was too polite to 
decline his stake. The fair Russian then approached 
the peasant, saying, " Permit me, venerable father, to 
salute you after the manner of my country," and em- 
bracing, gave him a kiss. She then presented him the 
gold which was on the plate, saying, " Take this as a 
remembrance of me, and as a sign that the Russian 
girls think it their dutv to honor old age." 



^ELL-Ga^NED I^ESHI. 

The stars shall fade away, the sun himself 
Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years; 
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, 
Unhurt, amidst the war of elements, 
The wreck of matter, and the crash of worlds ! 

Let men talk pleasantly of the dead, as those who 
no longer suffer and are tried — as those who pursue 
no longer the fleeting, but have grasped and secured 
the real. With them the fear and the longing, the 
hope and the terror, and the pain are past; — the 
fruition of life has begun. 

How unkind that, when we put away their bodies, 
we should cease the utterance of their names. The 
tender-hearted who struggled so in parting from us ! 
Why should we speak of them in awe, and remember 
them only with sighing? Very dear were they when 
hand clasped hand, and heart responded to heart. 
Why are they less dear when they have grown worthy 

50 



J&6 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

a higher love than ours? By your hearth-side, and by 
their grave-side, in solitude and amid the multitude,, 
think cheerfully and speak lovingly of the dead. 

" As they who to their couch at night 
Would welcome sleep, first quench the light," 

so, to gain the best views of the heavenly rest, it is 
often necessary that alluring objects of this life be re- 
moved from our sight. Their obtrusive glare shuts 
out the objects beyond. 

When Samuel Budgett, a distinguished English 
merchant, was dying, he said; "Riches I have had as- 
much as my heart could desire, but I never felt any 
pleasure in them for their own sake, only so far as they 
enabled me to give pleasure unto others." This dying 
confession of a rich man is worthy of being noted and 
remembered by every young aspirant after wealth. It 
teaches the wholesome truth that none but the most 
sordid natures can find any pleasure in the mere pos- 
session of riches. No millionaire is happy merely be- 
cause he owns a million of dollars. Ordinarily, that 
fact entails vexations, cares and duties which burden 
and disgust him. But when he uses money to feed 
the hungry, clothe the naked and instruct the ignorant, 
and build up the cause of Christ, it becomes a fountain 
of blessing to his heart. 

" One's age should be tranquil," says Dr. Arnold, 
" as one's childhood should be playful. Hard work,, 
at either extremity of human existence, seems to me 
out of place. The morning and the evening should be 
alike cool and peaceful ; at midday the sun may burn,, 
and men may labor under it." 



WELL EARNED REST. 787 

When Sir Walter Scott, toWards the close of his 
life, was congratulated by Dr. Cheney on the purity of 
his works of fiction, he answered, " I am drawing near 
to the close of my career. I am fast shuffling off the 
stage. I have been perhaps the most voluminous 
author of the day ; and it is a comfort to me to think 
that I have tried to unsettle no man's faith, to corrupt 
no man's principles, and that I have written nothing 
which on my deathbed I should wish blotted out." 

I cannot imagine old age to be a sad or undesira- 
ble thing. Infirmities it may have — must have ; but 
they need not be overwhelming, if the failing body has 
been treated, and is still treated, with that amdunt of 
respect which is its due. And at worst, perhaps bodily 
sufferings are not harder to bear than the horrible 
mental struggles of youth, with its selfish agony of 
passion and pain ; or than the vicarious sufferings of 
middle-age, when we groaned under the weight of 
other people's cares, mourned over sorrows that we 
were utterly powerless to cure, and looked forward 
with endless anxiety into an uncertain future, not con- 
sidering how soon it would become the harmless past. 

Now all that is over. The old never grieve much, 
at least, not overmuch. Why should they? It is 
strange to notice how, even after a loss by death that 
a few years before would have utterly crushed them, 
they seem to rise up and go on their way — only a few 
steps more — quietly, even cheerfully; troubling no 
one, complaining to no one, probably because it is 
only a few steps more. Suffering itself grows calm in 
the near view of rest. 



788 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

Thus it is with people of restful and patient mind. 
For others there is still something left. "I have had 
all I wanted," said to me one of the most unquiet 
spirits I ever knew, keenly alive still, even under the 
deadness of seventy-odd years. "Life has been a 
long puzzle to me, but I am coming to the end of it 
now. There is one thing more — I want to find out the 
great secret, and I shall — before long." 

One can quite well imagine some people, to whom 
the after-life was neither a certainty nor even a hope, 
looking forward to death as a matter of at least 
curiosity. But for us, who believe that death is the 
gate of life, it is quite a different feeling. Putting it on 
the very lowest ground, to have all our curiosity grati- 
fied, to know even as we are known, to feel nearer and 
nearer to our hands the key of the eternal mystery, 
the satisfying of the infinite desire; this alone is conso- 
lation, in degree, for our own failing powers and flag- 
ging spirits; nay, even for the slowly emptying world 
around us — emptying of the wise and the good, the 
pleasant and the dear whom one by one we see pass- 
ing away. 

"If I could only get rid of my body, I should be 
all right," sighed once a great sufferer. And there 
are times when even the most patient of us feel rather 
glad that we do not live forever. Respect our mortal 
tabernacle as we may, and treat it tenderly, as we 
ought to do, we may one day be not so very sorry to 
lay it down, not only with all its sins, but with its often 
infirmities. 



MILESTONES OF LIFE. 789 



CQlLESTONES OF LilPB. 

As we whirl over life's journey we constantly pass 
those points, coming in swifter succession, which mark 
the distance, not in years but in epochs and cycles, so 
to speak, as the turnpike between two cities is divided 
into miles by the stones placed at proper distances. 

When the summer day of youth is slowly wasting 
away into the nightfall of age, and the . shadows of the 
past year grow deeper and deeper as life wears to a 
close, it is pleasant to look back through the vistas of 
time upon the joys and sorrows of early years. If we 
have a home to shelter, or hearts to rejoice with us, 
and friends who have been gathering around our fire- 
side, then the rough places of our wayfaring will be 
worn and smoothed away in the twilight of life, while 
the bright, sunny spots we have passed through will 
grow brighter and more beautiful. Happy, indeed, 
are those whose intercourse with the world has not 
changed the course of their holier feeling, or broken 
those musical chords of the heart whose vibrations are 
so melodious, so tender and so touching in the evening 
of age. 

Mow strangely our ideas of growing old change as 
we get on in life. To the girl in her teens the riper 
maiden of twenty-five seems quite aged. Thirty-two 
thinks thirty-five an "old thing." Thirty-five dreads 
forty, but congratulates herself that there may still 
remain some ground to be possessed in the fifteen 
years before the half century is attained. But fifty 



79° WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

does not by any means give up the battle of life. It 
feels middle-aged and vigorous, and thinks old age a 
long way in the future. Sixty remembers those who 
have done great things at the three-score; and one 
doubts if Parr, when he was married at one hundred 
and twenty, had at all begun to feel himself an old 
man. It is the desire of life within us which makes us 
feel young so long. 

The discovery of a gray hair when you are brush- 
ing out your whiskers of a morning — the first fallen 
flake of the coming snows of age — is a disagreeable 
thing. 

Bishop Foster says: "There is a touch of pathos 
about doing even the simplest things ' for the last time.' 
It is not alone kissing the dead that gives you this 
strange pain. You feel it when you have looked for 
the last time on some scene you have loved — when 
you stand in some quiet city street where you know 
you will never stand again. The actor playing his 
part for the last time ; the singer whose voice is 
cracked hopelessly, and who, after this once, will never 
stand before the sea of upturned faces, disputing the 
plaudits with fresher voices and fairer forms ; the min- 
ister who has preached his last sermon — these all 
know the hidden bitterness of the two words, ' never 
again.' We put away our boyish toys with an old 
headache. We were too old to talk of play any longer 
on our stilts — too tall to play marbles on the sidewalk. 
Yet there was a pang when we thought we had played 
with our merry things for the last time, and life's seri- 
ous, grown-up work was waiting for us. Now we do 



MILESTONES OF LIFE. 79 1 

not want the lost toys back. Life has larger and other 
playthings for us. May it not be that these, too, shall 
seem in the light of some far-off day as the boyish 
games seem to our manhood, and we shall learn that 
death is but the opening of the gate into the land of 
promise." 

Perhaps, brother, the midnight is on thy soul. 
Cherished plans in life may all have been thwarted. 
Affliction, sorrow in severest form may have come 
upon you. Can you not believe that God still exists ? 
— that out of these things as well as out of prosperity 
shall come the highest good ? Can you not with Paul 
and Silas pray in your midnight, and sing praises unto 
God? 

It is probably natural that at the last, scenes 
which have made the strongest impressions in life 
should be recalled by memory. The old mountaineer, 
when he comes to die, with his last whisper says his 
"snowshoes are lost;" with the stage-driver he is "on 
the down-grade and cannot reach the brake;" the 
miner " cannot get to the air-pipe;" the sailor says 
"eight bells have sounded;" and the gambler plays 
his "last trump." A little girl died a few years ago, 
and, as her mother held her wrist and noted the faint- 
ing and flickering pulse, a smile came to the wan face, 
and the child whispered: "There is no desert here, 
mamma, but all the world is full of beautiful flowers." 
A moment later the smile became transfixed. 

In an Eastern city, not long ago, a Sister of Charity 
was dying, and at last from a stupor she opened her 
eyes and said: "It is strange; every kind word I have 



79 2 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

spoken in life, every tear that I have shed, has become 
a living flower around me, and they bring to my senses 
an incense ineffable." 

It is the thought of death that is terrible, not 
death. Death is gentle, peaceful, painless; instead of 
bringing suffering it brings an end of suffering. It is 
misery's cure. Where death is, agony is not. The 
processes of death are all friendly. The near aspect 
of death is gracious. There is a picture somewhere 
of a tearful face, livid and ghastly, which the beholder 
gazes on with horror and would turn away from but 
for the hideous fascination, that not only rivets his atten- 
tion, but draws him closer to it. On approaching the 
picture the hideousness disappears, and when directly 
confronted it is no longer seen ; the face is that of an 
angel. It is a picture of death, and the object of the 
artist was to impress the idea that terror of death was 
an apprehension. Theodore Parker, whose observa- 
tion of death was very large, has said that he never has 
seen a person of any belief, condition or experience r 
unwilling to die when the time came. Death is an 
ordinance of nature, is directed by beneficent ends. 
What must be is made welcome. 



r^A^VBST F^OME. 

When the sowing and reaping are ended, then 
comes the "Harvest Home." That we may enjoy the 
harvest we must sow in the spring-time ; so, if we 
would have a wise and peaceful old age, we must in 



HARVEST HOME. 795 

early life fill our hearts and minds with the truths that 
produce a vigorous manhood. 

We think of death as ending- our life; let us rather 
think of it as beginning it. And as it has been said, 
"When you think of death whispering, 'You must go 
from earth,' listen, also, for the voice of Christ saying,. 
'You are but coming to me.' " 

When one, in the midst of great usefulness, after 
years of great and valuable experience, is called away, 
we exclaim, " Oh, it is too bad! He was just ready to 
do so much good!" But does the death of the body 
stop all? Nay, God only promotes his child to a greater 
and a happier sphere of usefulness. This experience,, 
this sorrow, this self-denial, all these trials are needed 
and will be made use of in Eternity. 

A Christian in this world is but gold in the ore.. 
At death the pure gold is melted out and separated,, 
and the dross cast away and consumed. 

Let dissolution come when it will, it can do the 
Christian no harm, for it will be but a passage out of a 
prison into a palace; out of a sea of troubles into a. 
haven of rest ; out of a crowd of enemies to an in- 
numerable company of true, loving and faithful friends ;. 
out of shame, reproach and contempt, into exceeding^ 
great and eternal glory. 

A father was once absent from home for a short 
period, and, on the day of his return, his children 
thought they would prepare him little presents, one 
from each; so they went out and gathered flowers, and 
each made a beautiful nosegay. But one of the chil- 
dren was an idiot, and he gathered sticks and every 



794 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

kind of worthless thing that he could think of, and tied 
them up in a little bundle for his nosegay. When their 
father came, the children brought him their beautiful 
presents; but when afterwards this poor child's bundle 
of worthless sticks was brought, do you think the father 
said, "Get out of my sight?" Did he refuse that 
bundle of sticks and straws? No; he folded in his 
arms both the poor boy and his worthless nosegay. 
And so, friends, what you bring to God may be in his 
eyes but sticks and straws, but he will accept them. 
He will redeem you. He will forgive you. He will 
clothe you with a new robe. He will welcome you to 
the Father's house. You do not know what God can 
make of you, if you will give him a chance. You can- 
not see what the Divine artist can make of you. It 
may be that he can make a noble life where there is 
nothing now but shame. 

Thrice happy is that man whose memory of a 
Christian home quickens his desire for a better in 
" Our Father's House " in heaven ! In such a case we 
might say, with a good old' German saint when about 
to go hence, " Blessed are the home-sick, for they 
shall see home ! " 

Ye old men, brief is the space of life allotted to you ; 
pass it as pleasantly as ye can, not grieving from 
morning till eve; since time knows not how to pre- 
serve our hopes, but, attentive to its own concerns, 
flies away. 

There is a joy, greater than even the joy of a 
mother over her first-born, or the exultation of a man 
•over the baby son to whom he hopes to bequeath his 



HARVEST HOME. 795 

honor, his worldly goods and his unblemished name ; 
and that is, to have arrived at old age and seen this 
child, from its own day of birth to its parents death- 
day, living the life they would have it live, carrying out 
the principles they taught it, and being in every way 
what I have called " the child of heaven," — God's child 
as well as theirs. Then all the training, bitter and 
sweet, which they have undergone and made their 
child undergo — for no parents are worth the name 
who have not strength sometimes to wring their own 
hearts, and their child's, too, for a good end — will have 
been softened down into permanent peace. A peace en- 
during even amid all the trying weaknesses of old age, 
all the probable sufferings of the failing body and worn- 
out mind ; lasting even to the supreme moment, when 
the aged, dying head rests on the still young breast, 
and the child kisses the closed eyes which, through all 
anxiety, pain, even displeasure, never lost their look of 
love — never till now. And now it is all ended. No, 
not ended — God forbid ! 

In due time the last trump shall sound and Christ 
shall come, but the saints shall be with him. The 
infinite providence has so arranged that Christ shall 
not come without his people, for " them also that sleep 
in Jesus shall God bring with him." The saints shall 
be with him in the advent as they are now. Our souls 
shall hear the shout of victory and join in it; the voice 
•of the archangel shall be actually heard by all his 
redeemed, and the trump of God shall be sounded in 
the hearing of every one of his beloved, for we shall 
be with Jesus all through that glorious transaction. 



7g6 WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

Whatever the glory and splendor of that second 
advent, we shall be with Jesus in it. 

There is, moreover, to be a reign of Christ. I 
cannot read the Scriptures without perceiving that 
there is to be a millennial reign, as I believe, upon the 
earth, and that there shall be new heavens and a new 
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Well, what- 
ever that reign is to be, we shall reign also. 

" So come with your sickles, ye sons of men, 
And gather together the golden grain ; 
Toil on till the Lord of the harvest come, 

Then share ye His joy in the ' Harvest Home.' " 



<9HE Gl^AYB. 

Falling leaves are Nature's sermons- 

Our thoughts are ever more tending to the grave 
and its mysteries ; and like our past hours troop on- 
ward, often unbidden, to the day when we, too, shall 
attain to the realm of the unknown. 

Some of our greatest poems, indeed, are monodies 
and elegiac refrains. Yet with the cheering Christian 
philosophy of Wordsworth, we need not hang our 
harps upon the willows ; for 

Sin-blighted though we are, 

We, too, the reasoning sons of men, 

From our oblivious winter called, 

Shall rise to breathe again, 

And in eternal summer 

Lose our three-score years and ten ! 

The soul has finished its course in this world, has 
fought the fight, and kept its faith. Henceforth it 



THE GRAVE. 797 

wears the crown of immortality ! Man thyself, O 
mourner, and thou also prepare to fight the good fight. 
The loved one whom thou hast lost will one day ad- 
vance to meet thee at the gate of eternity, to greet 
thee as a glorified companion, and will cry unto thee : 
Here, also, God is thy God ! 

O God ! O Father ! thou art also my God, my 
Father ; why, then, should I be bowed down with grief? 
Why weakly yield myself up before my course is 
finished, before I have fought the good fight to the 
end? Oh, give me strength, give me power! whatever 
suffering thou mayst impose, I will bear it, for it will 
bring me nearer to Thee ! 

A workman by accident dropped a little, highly- 
valued silver cup into a strong acid bath. In a little 
while it had utterly disappeared. But when the 
master-workman came in and learned of it, he said 
nothing, but cast another acid into the jar, and the 
silver was soon precipitated — a shapeless mass, indeed, 
but every grain there. A few days after it came back 
a more beautiful cup, from the hands of the silver- 
smith. May not God as readily restore our bodies 
after the decay and disorganization of the grave ? 

Bishop Whipple says : "As I come nearer to the 
grave my theology grows strangely simple, and it 
begins and ends with Christ." 

"I account death," says Plutarch, "a truly great 
and accomplished good thing ; the soul being to live 
there a real life, which here lives not a waking life, but 
suffers things most resembling dreams." Of all the 
riches that we hug, of all the pleasures we enjoy, we 



ygS WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

can carry no more out of this world than out of a 
dream. 

The best and most useful of us will soon be for- 
gotten. Those who to-day are filling a large place in 
the world's regard will pass away from the remem- 
brance of men in a few months, or at the farthest, in a 
few years after the grave has closed upon their re- 
mains. 

We are shedding tears above a new-made grave, 
and wildly crying out in our grief that our loss is irre- 
parable, yet, in a short time, the tendrils of love 
entwine around other supports, and we no longer miss 
the one who has gone. 

A few more days, a few more months, or at most a 
few more years, and it will be whispered around that 
last night you died. It will be told how long you 
lingered, or how suddenly you went. Small groups of 
friends will go and gaze at you. They will remark 
how cold you are, and how natural you look. Some 
will inspect your shroud and discuss your coffin, while 
even your enemies will forgive you and hope you have 
gone to a better world. Are you ready for this ? In 
that final contest with death there may be neither time 
nor opportunity for the preparation that we are given 
a life-time to make.. The wiser course, the safer 
course, is to get ready while blessed with health and 
strength, both of body and mind. 

Some one will see to your shroud; some one will 
go for your coffin, and some one will doubtless put 
crape on the door whether you give any directions or 
not. It may not matter much if these things are not 



THE GRAVE. 799 

done exactly as you wish. No one will see to your 
soul. No one will look after your eternal interests. 
There is no repentance beyond the grave. In this 
short probationary existence you had just one thing 
to do, and that was to prepare for the life to come. 
If you are not ready, think of yourself lying cold in 
death. 

Oh, the grave! the grave! It buries every error, 
covers every defect, extinguishes every resentment! 
From its peaceful bosom, spring none but fond regrets 
and tender recollections. Who can look down upon 
the grave, even of an enemy, and not feel a compunc- 
tious throb, that he should have warred with the poor 
handful of earth that lies mouldering before him? But 
the grave of those we loved, what a place for medita- 
tion ! There it is, that we call up, in long review, the 
whole history of virtue and gentleness, and the thou- 
sand endearments lavished upon us, almost unheeded, 
in the daily intercourse of intimacy; there it is, that we 
dwell upon the tenderness, the solemn, awful tender- 
ness of the parting scene; the bed of death, with all its 
stifled griefs, its noiseless attendance, its mute, watch- 
ful assiduities! the last testimonies of expiring love! 
the feeble, fluttering, thrilling, — oh, how thrilling ! — 
pressure of the hand! the last fond look of the glazing 
eye turning upon us, even from the threshold of exis- 
tence! the faint, faltering accents, struggling in death 
to give one more assurance of affection! 

Ay, go to the grave of buried love, and meditate! 
There settle the account with thy conscience, for every 
past benefit unrequited, every past endearment unre- 



SOO WELL-SPRINGS OF TRUTH. 

garded, of that departed being, who can never — never 
— never return to be soothed by thy contrition! If 
thou art a child, and hast ever added a sorrow to the 
soul, or a furrow to the silvered, brow of an affectionate 
parent ; if thou art a husband, and hast ever caused 
the fond bosom that ventured its whole happiness in 
thy arms, to doubt one moment of thy kindness or thy 
truth; if thou art a friend, and hast ever wronged, in 
thought, or word, or deed, the spirit that generously 
confided in thee ; if thou hast given one unmerited 
pang to that true heart, which now lies cold and still 
beneath thy feet; then be sure, that every unkind look, 
every ungracious word, every ungentle action, will 
come thronging back upon thy memory, and knocking 
dolefully at thy soul ; then be sure, that thou wilt lie 
down sorrowing and repentant on the grave, and utter 
the unheard groan, and pour the unavailing tear; more 
deep, more bitter, because unheard and unavailing. 

Then weave thy chaplet of flowers, and strew the 
beauties of nature about the grave ; console thy broken 
spirit, if thou canst, with these tender, yet futile 
tributes of regret ; but take warning, by the bitterness 
of this, thy contrite affliction over the dead, and hence- 
forth be more faithful and affectionate in the discharge 
of thy duties to the living. 

" So live, that when thy summons comes, to join 
The innumerable caravan that moves 
To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go, not like the quarry-slave at night, 
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustain'd and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams! " 



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